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COVENANT BREAKING, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: 



OR 



PRESENT POSTURE OF OUR NATIONAL AFFAIRS, IN CONNECTION 
WITH THE 

EXICAN WAR 

EMBODYING THE SUBSTANCE 

// 

"7fV 

WO DISCOUESES, 

PREACHED IN HAMILTON, OHIO, 
ON THE 4th, and IIth. OF JULY, 1847. 



BY THOMAS E TTh 0^ M A ¥7 
Paslor of the First Presbyterian Church ff Hamilton 6, Rossville. 



ROSSVILLE: 

J. M. CHRISTY, PRINTER—MAIN ST. 

1847 




E^cj 






DISCOURSE, 



THE BROKEN COVENANT, 



Mal. II: 10.— Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God 
created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his 
brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers 1 

When the Most High divided to the nations their inherit- 
ance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds 
of the people according to the number of the children of Isra- 
el. ( Deut. 32; 8. ) For this favored nation he selected the 
iand of Canaan, the glory of all lands, ( Ezek. 20: 6. ) — where, 
when he had cast out the heathen, he planted them. He gave 
them a complete code of laws, moral, ceremonial, and political; 
and condescended to become, not only their Legislator, but, 
in a peculiar sense, their Chief Magistrate. In that wonderful 
volume which contains their constitution and laws, Jehovah was 
pleased to reveal to them, ( what all other nations were igno- 
rant of, ) the true foundation of the equality of man's natural 
rights ; — the fact that all mankind were possessed of a common 
nature, as descended from one original pair ; — or, in the lan- 
guage of the Apostle, ( Ac. 17: 26 ) that he had " made of one 
blood all nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the 
earth." 

Equality of natural rights, however, does not imply, nor de- 
mand, equality of outward condition, 

" Order is Heaven's first law ; and this confest, 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 
More ricih, more wise." 

[Pope's Ess. on man, Ep. 4.1 

A— I. 



There always have been, and, while human nature continues 
what it is, there always must be, rulers and subjects, leaders 
and followers, thinkers and workers, masters and servants. — 
Accordingly, in the Divine system of laws given to Israel, we 
fmd these diversities of condition, circumstances, and employ- 
ment, recognized and provided for. With reference to the last 
mentioned relation, it may be said, that Jehovah not only per- 
mitted, but established, a system of servitude ; — (I use the 
word in its mildest sense; ) — not a system of slavery, but yet 
of servitude ; — a system founded upon a distinct recognition 
of man's natural rights ; in which those rights were scrupu- 
lously guarded ; in which the interests as well as the rights of 
the servant were studiously consulted, and carefully protected ; 
in which the prerogatives of the master were accurately defin- 
ed, and his obligations solemnly enforced. 

And yet, alas! though blessed with such a code of laws : on 
this, as on every other subject, so wisely adapted to the neces- 
i^ities of society, and so happily adjusted as to preserve the 
rights and promote th*e interests of all, so far as law could ac- 
complish these ends ; we find on every page of Jewish history 
an exhibition of man's native tendency to tyranize over his 
fellow-man. '' If thou seest," said'Solomon, " the oppression 
of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in 
a province, marvel not at the matter." ( Eccl. 5:8.) So com- 
mon a sight was this, that to wonder at it, would but evince a 
childish ignorance of fallen human nature, and its mournful 
history. To the just and good man there remains this only 
consolation ;— " He that is higher than the highest regardeth," 
and will one day smite the oppressor^ and rescue the oppressed. 

The prophet Jeremiah was directed to reprove the princes 
and people of Jerusalem, because they had converted the Di- 
vine system of Hebrew servitude into a system of slavery; 
and he closed his prophetic rebuke with this memorable de- 
nunciation ; Therefore, thus saith the Lord ; ye have not 
hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his 
brother, and every man to his neighbor ; behold, I proclaim a 
liberty for you, satth the Lord, to the sword, to the iamine, and 



to the pestilence ; and I will make you to be removed into al! 
the kingdoms of the earth." ( Jer. 34: 17.) 

At a subsequent period, even after this threatened judgment 
had been executed, and some of the people, upon repentance, 
had been restored to their own land, we find Nehemiah com- 
pelled to " set a great assembly " against certain wealthy Jews, 
who were endeavoring to enslave their poorer brethren, (Neh. 
5;l,(5-c.) 

And in the language of our text, this last of the Old Testa- 
ment prophets solemnly and eloquently upbraids his people, 
and especially the priests, for their partial administration of 
that equitable law vouchsafed to their ancestors, ( v. W.) ''Have 
we not all one father ? Hath not one God created us ? Why 
then do we deal treacherously, every man against his brother, 
by prolaning the covenant of our fathers ?" Why do we not 
respect those rights of our brother which have a common foun- 
dation with our own ; and which are expressly recognized, and 
secured, in the covenant that God made with our fathers? 

So much, then, in reference to the original application of the 
text. I propose to prove that its searching and momentous 
queries may, with equal pertinency, be considered as address- 
ed by the messenger of God to the people of these United 
States : and surely they may, with special emphasis, be em- 
ployed for that purpose on this day, so long celebrated as the 
birth-day of American liberty. 

We surely need no assistance from the imagination, in draw- 
ing a parallel, at once interesting and instructive, between the 
ancient people of Israel, and the early settlers of these United 
States. An apostle has taught us that God, who made of one 
blood all nations of men, to dwell upon all the face of the 
earth, hath determined the times before appointed, and the 
bounds of their habitation. ( Ac. 17: 26,) And who can doubt 
that, when the Most High divided unto the nations their inher- 
itance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds 
<Df the people according to the number of our fathers ? For 
nearly four thousand years after the ark had rested on Mount 
Ararat, whilst the posterity of Noah multiplied to hundreds 
4i£ millions in the old world, where oriental, and Homan, and 



feudal despotisms, successively, enchained the bodies, minds, 
and consciences of men, his descendants in the new vvorld, at 
least in the fair and rich, the vast and magnificent portion 
which constitutes our national domain, numbered only a few 
hundred thousand wandering savages. There lay this beauti- 
ful land — stretching thousands of miles northward and south- 
ward, eastward and westward, with its immense capabilities for 
sustaining untold millions ; yet left, according to the counsels 
of Heaven, during all those forty centuries, in undisturbed, pri- 
meval simplicity. No lofty city encumbered its soil. No keel 
cleaved th»se vast rivers, which have, not improperly perhaps, 
been denominated " inland seas. '^ No gallant vessel ruffled 
the bosom of its glassy lakes. No rich merchant-man, or 
frowning ship of war, floated in one of its 'capacious natural 
harbors. No plough of the farmer turned the sod of its ex- 
tensive prairies. No axe of the feller was lifted up against its 
magnificent, and almost boundless forests. No adventurous mi- 
ner explored the hidden riches of its coal and iron, and lead, 
and copper, and gold. The busy hum of industry had never 
been heard throughout all its borders. Not even the call of 
the herdsman to his cattle, or the whistle of the shepherd to his 
flock, had ever broken the silence of its forests, or awakened 
the slumbering echoes of its mountains. 

But when the fullness of time had come, God guided the 
barks of Columbus to this western hemisphere : and mark how 
his providence ordered the subsequent events. Mexico and 
Peru, the portions of our continent already occupied by a denser 
and more civilized population, attracted, by their exhaustless 
wealth of gold and silver and precious stones, the curious, the 
ambitious, and the avaricious adventurers of Europe. These 
northern, and less alluring, but really more valuable regions, 
comparatively unoccupied, afforded a safe and happy home for 
ten thousands of the old world, who under the government of 
priests and princes in their native lands, had long sought in vam 
for civil and religious liberty. Ttuly has it been said that God 
sifted three nations to obtain the seed planted in these United 
States. And, indeed, he sifted, not three nations, only, but alt 
the nations of Europe. The Scotch, the Irish, the English 



Puritans, the Huguenots of France, the Calvinists of Holland, 
the Moravian Germans, and even the English Catholics, who 
first emigrated to this country, were prompted to leave their 
homes, and encounter all the perils of the sea and of the wilder- 
ness, mainly by an impressible desire for civil and religious 
freedom. 

In the plenitude of his goodness God granted their desire.—^ 
Every occurrence in the eventful history of the colonies, even 
those at first apparently adverse, was rendered subservient to 
the attainment of liberty. He that directed the Israelites to 
flee out of Egypt, brought our fathers out of their house of 
bondage. He that-opened, for the one, a path through the Red 
Sea ; provided, for the other, — by the invention of the compass, 
and, the improvements in the art of navigation,— facilities for 
safely traversing the broad Atlantic. If constant miracles of 
mercy supported the one^ in the wilderness of Sinai ; a series 
of providences, no less manifest, sustained the other amid the 
wilds of America. If he raised up a Joshua to conduct the 
former to victory, he furnished the latter with an equally com^ 
petent commander, in the person of Washington. Alas that 
the parallel must be pursued yet farther ! The ancient people 
of God setup, even in the wilderness, that idolatrous worship, 
which, m one form or other, cleaved to them and their descen- 
dants, until it issued in their complete national overthrow. — 
And our fathers, the most highly favored of all modern na- 
tions, suffered the early introduction of a system of iniquity, 
which has grown with our growth, and strengthened with our 
strength ; and which, if we heed not the warnings of God's 
providence and word, will as certainly result in our utter and 
irrevocable ruin. — I refer to the introduction into the colonies 
of slavery and the slave-trade. 

Who would have believed that the very men who had them- 
selves fled from oppression, and into whose souls the iron of 
despotism had entered, would have ever permitted the asylum 
of their adoption to be pressed by the foot of a slave ? But so 
it was ; — such is poor human nature ! The very year which 
witnessed the establishment of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plym- 
outh, witnessed, also, tjie introduction of negro slavery into 



8 

Virginia. At first, indeed, "scruples arose among the consci- 
entious Puritans and Quakers, and the whole system fell into 
disrepute and reprobation. As early as 1645, when some ne- 
gro slaves, stolen from Guinea, were introduced into Massa- 
chusetts, the General Court ordered them to be restored, at the 
public charge, to their native*country, with a letter expressing 
the indignation of the Court at their wrongs."^ The two 
church members, who had been concerned in this iniquity, 
were summarily suspended from communion. And yet, little 
more than a century had elapsed, before slaves were held, 
not only in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, 
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jer- 
sey, but even in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts ; 
■ and slaves were publicly advertised for sale, in the newspapers 
of Boston ! t 

Nor is there much weight in the assertion, so often made, 
that slavery was forced upon the colonies by the British gov- 
ernment. It is true that some colonial Assemblies, those of 
Virginia in particular, did frequently pass laws, restricting, or 
prohibiting the slave-trade ; to which the King, or the Gover- 
nors by his direction, refused assent. But, on the other hand, 
— not to insist upon what was alw£(ys and everywhere true, that, 
however the importation might be allowed, no colonist was ev- 
er required to buy slaves ; ( and, had public opinion been de- 
cidedly against the traffic, few would ever have been purcha- 
sed ; ) — not to insist upon this, I say, there aie*some stubborn 
facts which go far to fix no small portion of responsibility, in 
this matter, upon our own country. 

The original charter of Georgia, as granted to Oglethorpe 
and others, prohibited, the importation of W. India rum, and 
the existence of negro slavery. Both these prohibitions were 
complained of by the colonists, "and it was asserted that the 
prohibition of slavery prevented successful cultivation of their 
lands. This latter assertion was, however, disproved by the 

* " Before the Revolution, domestic slavery was not uncommon in 
the large towns in Massachusetts ; and as late as 1774, the public pa- 
.pers usually contained notices of black slaves for sale. "---Bradford's 
Hisuof Mass. f Bancroft's U. S. vol. 1. p. 173. 



Moravian settler?, whose fields were always well cultivated, 
without the least assistance of negroes, or other servants."* — 
Notwithstanding these complaints, therefore, the proprietors 
continued the restrictions from 1732 to 1752 ; nor was it until 
the charter passed into the hands of the King, that the wishes 
of the colonists prevailed, and slavery was introduced into 
Georgia. 

While the Duke of York, ( afterwards King James the 2nd . 
of England, ) gave law to the colony of New York ; by the 
statutes known as "the Duke's laws," which continued in 
force from 1665 to 1683, it was forbidden to a "christian to 
keep a slave, except persons adjudged thereto by authority, or 
such as have willingly sold or shall sell themselves." But 
when the government was in the hands of the colonists, the 
Assembly of 1»740, ( which, by the way, was charged with seek- 
ing independence of the British crown,) observed, "that all 
due encouragement ought to be given to the direct importation 
of slaves, and all smuggling of slaves condemned, as an emi- 
nent discouragement to the fair trader"' t 

Even with reference to Virginia, Jefferson says : "During 
the regal government, we had, at one time, obtained a law, 
which imposed such a duty on the importation of slaves, as a- 
. mounted nearly to a prohibition ; when one inconsiderate As- 
sembly, placed under a peculiarity of circumstances, repealed 
the law. This repeal, (he adds,) met vvith a joyful sanction from 
the then sovereign ; and no devices, no expedients which could 
ever after be attempted by subsequent Assemblies, (and they 
seldom met without attempting them, ) could succeed in get- 
ting the regal assent to a renewal of the duty. "J 

The original draft of the Declaration of Independence, as it 
^ came from the pen of Jefferson, contained this important para- 
graph : " He ( the King of Great Britain ) has waged cruel 
war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights 
of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who nev- 
er offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in 
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their trans- 

* Frost's Hist, of the U.S. ii. 103. f Kent's Commentaries, jr. 255. 
INoteson Va. Phi!. 1801, p. 171, 



10 

portation thither. This piratical waifare, the approbrium of 
infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great 
Britain : determined to keep open a market where MEN 
should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for 
suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to re- 
strain this execrable commerce ;'^ <5'C,* It is well known 
that this paragraph is not to be found in the Declaration as 
adopted by Congress, July 4th, 1776. The causes of its omis- 
sion, which may not be so generally understood, are thus sta- 
ted by Jefferson himself: " The clause reprobating the enslav- 
ing the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to 
South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to re- 
strain the importation oj slaves^ and who, on the contrary, 
still wished to continue it A Our iiorthern brethren, also, I 
believe, felt a little tender under their censures; for altho' their 
people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had h^Qnpret- 
ty considerable carriers of them to others. "± 

Such, then, was the unhappy state of things during the for- 
mer half of the eighteenth century. Negroes, more or fewer, 
were held in bondage throughout all the colonies ; the slave- 
trade, if not universally legalized, was extensively practised ; 
and, although many good people remonstrated, and an occasion- 
al act of legislation looked towards prohibition, or emancipa- 
tion, yet there was no such strength of public sentiment against 
slavery, especially in those provinces where slave labor was 
profitable, as cbuld warrant the hope of its speedy termina- 
tion. 

The controversy on paper, between the colonies and Great 
Britain, relative to the rights and liberties of the former, which 
preceded the controversy on the battle fields of the Revolution, 
first produced a decided change in public opinion with regard 
to negro slavery. For many years, the colonists were absorb- 
ed in that discussion of principles. The whole subject of nat- 
ural and political rights was thoroughly investigated. The 



*Seeafac simile of the Declaration, Jefferson's correspondence 
vol. 4. f This statement must be qualified by the facts mentioned be- 
low. I See Niles' Register, llth July, 1829. 



11 

true foundation of those rights, and of all just government, 
was clearly ascertained. The press teemed with able political 
essays. The forum thundered forth eloquent denunciations of 
tyranny. The principles of the Bible, bearing upon the sub- 
ject; were presented from a hundred pulpits. The popular 
mind was enlightened, aroused, and profoundly interested, — 
True, the main points at issue were the nature, extent, and foun- 
dation of the rights of the colonists themselves : but it was 
readily and universally perceived, that the arguments by which 
they defended themselves against the tyranny of a British 
King, were equally valid in defending a slave against the ty- 
ranny of his master.* The result of this discussion, so far as 
African slavery was concerned, may be learned from the facts 
and resolutions which follow ; and especially from that solemn 
national covenant, in reference to the slave-trade, which it is 
my chief design to present, in this connexion. 

In 1770, " several blacks in Massachusetts sued their masters 
for their liberty, and for wages for past service ; the Courts 
deciding in their favor, on general principles of freedom, "t 

Dr. Benj, Rush, in a letter to Granville Sharp, dated May 1, 
1773 said, — <« A spirit of humanity and religion begins to a- 
waken in several of the colonies, in favor of the poor negroes. 
Anthony Benezet stood alone, a few years ago, in opposing 
negro slavery in Philadelphia ; and now, three-fourths of the 
province, as well as of the city, cry out against it. "t 

Jan. 1774, " An act to prevent the importation of negroes 

* As a specimen of these discussions, and of their necessary bear- 
ing upon negro slavery, take one brief extract from a sermon^ 
preached by the Rev. John J. Zubly, D. D., before the provincial con- 
gress of Georgia, meeting at Savannah, July 4th, 1776. ( Dr. Z. re- 
presented the city of Savannah, in that congress.) His text was, 
James 2. 12;— his subject, " The law of liberty ;"— his principles 
may be discovered in the following sentences. "That government 
and tyranny are the hereditary right of some, and that slavery and 
oppression are the original doom of others, is a doctrine that would 
reflect dishonor upon God. It iS treason against all mankind. "— 
[ American Archives ; 4th series ; vol. 2. p. 1645, published by au- 
thority of the Congress of the U. S) Would such a discourse be en- 
dured in Savannah to-day 1 Its influence at that time may be Been in 
the resolption quoted upon p. 15. 

f Walsh's Appeal, 303. t Stuart's life of Sharp, p. 21. 



' 12 

and others, as slaves into tliis province, " was passed by the 
Massachusetts Assembly.* 

In 1774, Connecticut prohibited the importation of slaves. 

The preamble to the act prohibiting the importation of slaves 
into Rhode Island, passed in June^ 1774, contains the follow- 
ing language ; " Whereas the inhabitants of America are gen- 
erally engaged in the preservation of their own rights and lib- 
erties, among which that of personal freedom must be consider- 
ed the greatest ; and as those who are desirous of enjoying all 
the advantages of liberty themselves, should be willing to ex- 
tend personal liberty to others, therefore," 4'C. 

The adoption, by the British Parliament, of the celebrated 
Boston Port Bill, which annihilated the commerce of that "re- 
bellious" city, after the 1st day of June, 1774, sailed forth the 
loudest expressions of indignation from all parts of the Amer- 
ican colonies. Town, county, and provincial meetings were 
every where held, in which such measures were suggested and 
adopted, as the people deemed most likely to stop the progress 
of governmental usurpation, and secure the colonial liberties. 
Among these measures, that of a universal non-importation 
and non-exportation agreement, in reference to Great Britam, 
met with almost unanimous approval. In connexion with this 
measure, the subject of slavery and the slave trade, naturally 
suggested itself ; the opportunity was generally embraced to 
express the public hostility to that nefarious business ; and its 
immediate abolition was almost universally demanded. The 
following extracts from the proceedings of these assemblies 
will suffice to show the position then occupied by our fathers. 

June 1774. <^' At a general meeting of the freeholders and 
inhabitants of Prince George's County, Virginia, the fol- 
lowing resolves were unanimously agreed to : ( Among others,) 
" Resolved, that the African trade is injurious to this colony, 
obstructs the population of it by freemen, prevents manufac- 
tures and other useful emigrants from Europe from settling a- 
mongst us, and occasions an annual increase of the balance of 
trade against this colony."t 

* Walsh's Appeal, p. 313. fAm. Archives, series fourth, vol. 1. 
p. 493, 



13 

« At a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the 
county of Culpepper, in Virginia, assembled on due notice, 
at the Court House of the said county, on Thursday, the 7th 
of July, 1774, to consider of the most effectual method to pre- 
serve the rights and liberties of America; — Resolved, That 
the importing slaves and convict servants, is injurious to this 
colony, as it obstructs the population of it with freemen and 
useful manufacturers, and that we will not buy any such slave 
or convict servant hereafter to be imported. "* 

"At a general meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of 
the County of Nujisemond, Virginia, on the 1 Ith day of July, 
1774, the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to ; 
Resolved, That the African trade is injurious," &c, [same as 
the resolution of Pr. George's Co. ]t 

July 14, 1774, At a similar meeting in Caroline County, 
Virginia, " Resolved, That the African trade is injurious to 
this colony, &c— and therefore that the purchase of all import- 
ed slaves ought to be associated against.":}: 

July 16th, 1774, At a meeting oi Surry County, Virginia, 
*' 5th, Resolved, That as the population of this colony with 
freemen and useful manufacturers, is greatly obstructed by the 
importation of slaves and convict servants, we will not purchase 
any such slaves or servants hereafter to be imported. " || 

" At a general meeting of the freeholders and other inhabi- 
tants of the County of Fairfax, Virginia, at. the court house 
in the town of Alexandria, on Monday, the 18th day of July, 
1774 ; — ( George Washington, Esqr, in the chair ): — Resolv- 
ed, That it is^the opinion of this meeting, that during our pres- 
ent difficulties and distress, no slaves ought to be imported in- 
to any of the British colonies on this continent ; and we take 
this opportunity of declaring our most earnest wishes to see an 
entire stop forever put to such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural 
trade. — Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that 

*Do. p. 523. tl^o-P-530. fDo, p. 541. ||Do. p. 593. 

B^2. 



14 

a Solemn Covenant and ^Association should be entered into 
by the inhabitants of all the colonies, &c," * 

" At a meeting of the freeholders of Hanover County, Vir- 
ginia, at the court house, on July 20th, \11A,^^ an address of 
instruction to their Delegates, John Syme and Patrick Henry, 
was adopted, in which they say: "The African trade for 
slaves, we consider as most dangprous to virtue and the wel- 
fare of this country ; we therefore most earnestly wish to see 
it totally discouraged."! 

"At a meeting of freeholders &c, of Princess *8.nne Coun- 
ty, Virginia, — Resolved, That our Burgesses be instructed to 
oppose the importation of slaves and convicts, as injurious to 
this colony, " &c, % 

" At a very full meeting of Delegates from the different 
counties in the colony and dominion of Virginia, begun in 
Williamsburgh the 1st day of August, 1774, — the following 
Association was unanimously resolved upon, and agreed to — 
2nd. We will neither ourselves import, nor purchase any slave 
or slaves imported by any other person, after the first day of 
November next, either from Africa, the West Indies, or any 
other place." || 

Thomas Jefferson was one of the Delegates appointed to at- 
tend this Virginia Convention, Prevented by sickness from at- 
tendance, he drew up a paper expressive of his sentiments upon 
some important points, which he forwarded by one of his broth- 
er Delegates. That paper contains the following paragraph: — 
" The abolition of slavery is the greatest object of desire in 
these colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their in- 
fant state. But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves 
we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations 
from Africa, Yet our repeated attempts to effect this by pro- 
hibitions, and by imposing duties which might amount to a 
prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's neg- 

*Do. p. 600. fDo. p. 616. I Do. 641. |I Do. p. 687. 



15 

ative : thus preferring the immediate advantage of a few Afri- 
can corsairs, to the lasting interests of the American states, and 
to the rights of human nature, deeply wounded by this infa- 
mous practice."* 

Aug. 27, 1774, The first Provincial Convention o^ North 
Carolina, held at Newburn, adopted the following, among oth- 
er resolutions: *« Resolved, That we will not import any 
slave or slaves, or purchase any slave or slaves imported or 
brought into this province by others, from any part of the 
world, after the first day of November next. '^t 

On the 5th of September, 1774, the First Continental 
Congress assembled in Philadelphia. Eleven Colonies were 
represented in that body. After a long and patient considera- 
tion of the subject, a Plan of Association for carrying into ef- 
fect the non-importation, &c., was adopted on the 20th of Oc- 
tober, from which I quote the following article : " We do, 

FOR OURSELVES, AND FOR THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEVERAL 
COLONIES WHOM WE REPRESENT, FIRMLY AGREE AND ASSOCI- 
ATE, UNDER THE SACRED TIES OF ViRTUE, HoNOR, AND LoVE 

OF OUR Country, ^^yb/Zoz^.'^; — 2nd. That we will neither 

IMM)RT, NOR PURCHASE ANY SLAVE IMPORTED, AFTER THE 
FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER NEXT, AFTER WHICH TIME WE WILL 
WHOLLY DISCONTINUE THE SLAVE TRADE, AND WILL NEITHER 
BE CONCERNED IN IT OURSELVES, NOR WILL WE HIRE OUR VES- 
SELS, NOR SELL OUR COMMODITIES OR MANUFACTURES TO THOSE 

WHO ARE CONCERNED IN IT.''± This Association was read 
iind signed at the table, by the Delegates of New Hampshire 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, N. York, N. Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,- 
and South Carolina. Georgia was not represented in that Con- 
gress. Among the signers, v^ ere John Adams, Roger Sherman, 
John Jay, Philip Livingston, Richard Henry Lee, George 
Washington, Patrick Henry, Ben], Harrison, <5'C. 

Such was THE COVENANT OF OUR FATHERS, form- 



'^Do, p. 696. f Do. p. 736. Po. pp. 913, 914. 






16 

ed by the first American Congress : an act, demanded, as we 
have seen, by the public conscience and will, even in the South- 
ern Slates : an act by which, at the earliest period within 
which it could be made universally known, the Representatives 
of the people, in their name, and by their authority, resolved 
wholly to discontinue the slave trade, and thus put away 
from us,— preparatory to entering upon a fearful struggle for 
freedom, — our chief national iniquity : an act which as Jeffer- 
son distinctly intimates, was regarded only as initiative to the 
final abolition of slavery itself. It may be said, indeed, that 
this Association, by its very terms, was binding, only until cer- 
tain Acts of Parliament were redressed : and this is true, so far 
as the letter of the Covenant, and the body of its provisions, 
are concerned. But that these limitations were never intended 
to apply to the second article of that association, is evident, 
first, from the peculiar and emphatic phraseology employed ; 
secrnidly, from the fact that the object of a non-importation 
was, to affect the business interests of the mother country, and 
thus compel her own citizens to oppose the tyrannical meas- 
ures of government ; but the slave trade could have been con- 
tinued without the possibility of benefiting Great Britain : and 
thirdly, from the nature of the arguments used against that 
traffic, — " that it is injurious to the colonies," — '^ a wicked, cru- 
el, and unnatural trade," — "most dangerous to virtue and the 
welfare of the country," — " an infamous practice, deeply 
wounding the rights of human nature," <5'C. Surely the Con- 
gress could never have intended that such a traffic should be 
suspended only until their own threatened rights should be se- 
cured ! And, let it ever be remembered, that, as the grievan- 
ces complained of by the colonists were never redressed, until 
the Governor of nations had manifestly interposed in their be- 
half, they were then bound by every tie of gratitude and of re- 
ligion, never to relapse into the practice of that enormous crime, 
which they had so long perpetrated, and now solemnly profes- 
sed " wholly to discontinue." Well, then, might the Philadel- 
phia Yearly meeting of Quakers, in their anti-slavery petition 
to the Constitutional Congress of 1797 say, — "This was a sol- 
emn league and covenant made with the Almighty in an hour 



17 

•of distress ; and he is now calling upon you to perform and ful- 
fil it.^'* 

That the Continental Congress, in subscribing, for them- 
selves and for the colonists, so important and enduring an obli- 
gation as that contained in the second article of the Association, 
did not transcend their powers, and the wishes of their constit- 
uents, is evident, not only from the facts and resolutions al- 
ready quoted, but from others which remain to be mentioned. 
In every part of the land, this act was confirmed and sanction- 
ed, by town, and county meetings, as well as by Provincial 
Conventions; and innumerable committees were appointed to 
see that its provisions were strictly complied with. 

"At a legal meeting of the inhabitants of the town oi Dan- 
bury, Connecticut, l>ec. 12th 1774, they say: "2. We do 
heartily approve of the Association containing a non-importa- 
tion, non-exportation, and non-consumption agreement, enter- 
ed into by the General Congress, " 8^0,. "4. It is with singu- 
lar pleasure we notice the second article of the Association, in 
which it is agreed to import no more negro slaves, as we can- 
not but think it a palpable absurdity so loudly to complain of 
attempts to enslave us, while we are aetually enslaving others ; 
and that we have great reason to apprehend the enslaving the 
Africans is one of the crying sins of the land, for which Heav- 
en is chastising us. We notice also with pleasure, the late act 
of our General Assembly, imposing a fine of one hundred 
pounds on any one who shall import a negro slave into this col- 
ony. We could also wish that something further might be 
done for the relief of such as are now in a state of slavery in 
the colonies, and such as may hereafter be born of parents in 
that unhappy condition.'^! 

Such were the views of the second article, entertained in 
the northern colonies. Let us see how it was regarded in the 
extreme south. The Provincial Congress of South Carolina^ 

♦American State Papers, vol. XX. pp. 163, 164. fAmer. Archives, 
fourth series, vol. 1. p. 1038. 



•^i 



18 

'meeting on the llti ianmvy, 1775, "Resolved, That this 
^Congress do approve the American Association."* 

We have seen that Georgia, (from a peculiarity of circum- 
stances, ) was not represented in the Continental Congress of 
1774. The people of that state, however, were deeply inter- 
ested in its proceedings ; and on the 12th. of January, 1775, 
the Darien committee adopted a paper from which the follow- 
ing extract is taken : " We, therefore, the Representatives of 
the extensive district of Darien, in the colony of Georgia, 
having now assembled in Congress, by authority and free choice 
of the inhabitants of the said district, now freed from their fet- 
ters, do resolve, — 5. To show the world that we are not influ- 
enced by any contracted or interested motives, but a general 
philanthrophy for all mankind, of whatever climate, language, 
or complexion, we hereby declare our disapprobation and abhor- 
rence of the unnatural practice of slavery in America, ( how- 
ever the uncultivated state of our country, or other specious 
arguments may plead for it, ) a practice founded in injustice and 
cruelty, and highly dangerous to our liberties, ( as well as 
lives, ) debasing part of our fellow-creatures below men, and 
corrupting the virtue and morals of the rest ; and as laying the 
basis of that liberty we contend for ( and which we pray the 
Almight}^ to continue to the latest posterity ) upon a very 
wrong foundation. We therefore resolve, at all times to use 
our utmost endeavors for the manumission of our slaves in this 
colony, upon the most safe and equitable footing for the mas- 
ters and themselves, " t 

On the 18th of January, 1775, forty-five of the Deputies as- 
sembled in Provincial Congress, at Savannah, in Georgia, sub- 
scribed an Association, as follows : — " We do, therefore, for 
ourselves and our constituents, firmly agree and associate, un- 
der the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of country. — 2nd. 
That we will neither import nor purchase any slaves imported 



*Do. p. nil. t^o. p. 1136. 



19 

from Africa, or elsewhere, after the 15th day of March 

next/' * 

On the 6th of July, 1775, The Provincial Congress of 
Georgia meeting at Savannah, resolved, "4th, That we will 
neither import, nor purchase any slave imported, from Africa, or 
elsewhere, after this day. "t 

On the 24th of March, 1775, a Bill to prohibit the impor- 
tation of slaves, passed the Assembly of Delaware. % 

Finally, to omit other facts of a similar character, the gene- 
ral principles which must forever condemn both the slave- 
trade and slavery, were solemnly affirmed by the third Conti- 
nental Congress, when they adopted, on the 4th of July 1776> 
— seventy one years since, — the memorable document which 
immortalized the memory of the day, and gave birth to our 
Republic. " We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all 
men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Crea- 
tor with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. " In defence of these 
principles, and their legitimate consequences, our fathers waged 
war with the mightiest power on earth, " appealing '' as they 
said, "to the Supreme Judge of the world " for the rectitude 
of their intentions, " And for the support of this Declara- 
tion, " ( such was their language to one another, ) " with a firm 
reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually 
pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor," 

Who can doubt that the act of the first Continental Congress, 
by which, "under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and the 
love of country," they bound themselves and their constitu- 
ents " wholly to discontinue the slave-trade " after December 
Ist.^ 1774, — was an act acceptable to God ? Who can doubt 



*Do. p.ll58. fDo. vol. 2. p. 1545. It was before this body 
tliat Dr. Zubly preached his 4th of July sermon, mentioned above* 
,|Do. vol. 2. p. 127. 



20 

that the principles of the Declaration of Independence, being 
absolute truth, received his righteous approval ? And was the 
appeal of our fathers to the Supreme Judge of the world un- 
heard ? Was their humble reliance on Divine Providence an 
idle trust ? Before they called, he had answered. Already 
had he prepared suitable agents for that great work which he 
intended to perform in their behalf; and when the hour for ac- 
tion arrived, he who raised up Cyrus from the east, gave the 
nations before him, and made him rule over kings,''( Isa. 41: 
2,) summoned generals to the field, statesmen to the legislative 
halls, financiers. to the management of fiscal affairs, and ambas- 
sadors to promote our cause in foreign courts :— a body of men, 
so admirably qualified for their several stations, and so harmo- 
niously co-operative, that the history of the world cannot fur- 
nish its parallel. Time would fail us to recount the many clear 
and marked providential interpositions, by which it was mani- 
fest that God defended the right. Let one or two facts serve 
as a specimen of the whole. The campaign of 1776, was, for 
the most part, disastrous to the American cause. Attacked by 
twenty-four thousand effective soldiers, under Lord Howe, 
amply supplied, and backed by a powerful fleet, Washington, 
with his nine thousand poorly provided followers, were com- 
pelled to abandon Long Island. " In the evening, a disadvan- 
tageous wind, and rain, prevented the troops from embarking, 
and it was feared that a retreat could not be effected that night. 
But about eleven o^ clock, a favorable breeze sprung up, the 
tide turned in the right direction, and a thick fog arose a- 
bout two o'clock in the morning, which hung over Long Is- 
land, while on the New York side it was clear, ^^ Thus aid- 
ed by Him who makes his pavilion dark waters and thick clouds 
of the skies, ( Ps. 18; 11,) " the whole Ameiican army, with 
all the field artillery, such heavy ordnance as was of any value, 
ammunition, provisions, cattle, horses, carts, and every thing 
of importance, passed safely over. All this was effected vvith' 
out the knowledge of the British, although they were^so nigh 
that they were heard at work with their pick-axes and shovels. 
In half an houraher the lines were finally abandoned, thq 



21 

fog cleared oflf, and the enemy were seen taking possession of 
the abandoned works. '* * 

Driven from New York city, and partially defeated at White 
plains, Washington was compelled to pass the Hudson, and, af- 
ter the loss of forts Washington and Lee, to retreat across N, 
Jersey, and pass the Delaware. Here, in mid winter, with an 
army reduced to three thousand men, bare-foot and bleeding, 
shivering in their tents, scantily furnished with the munitions 
of war, and even the necessaries of life, lay the American lead- 
er, defeated, but not disheartened. East of the Delaware, spread 
out over the conquered country, were thirty thousand victorious 
British troops. A proclamation from Gen. Howe, offering 
pardon to such as vvould take the oath of allegiance within 
sixty days, had led multitudes to abandon their country's cause; 
among the number, even some members of Congress. The 
Congress itself had removed from Philadelphia to Baltimore, 
leaving Robert Morris, and two associates, as a committee, to re- 
main in that city, and attend to the necessary public busi- 
ness. At this critical juncture of our affairs, when, even in 
strong hearts, despair was obliterating the last faint traces of 
hope, Washington, in view of the positions, and confident secu- 
rity of the enemy, and the necessity of strikiiiji some bold 
stroke which might revive the fainting spirits of his country- 
men, resolved on attacking some of the British posts. But 
«' the sinews of war " were wanting. Washington addressed 
a letter to Robert Morris, " in which it was stated, that while 
the enemy was accurately informed of all his movements, he 
was compelled, from the want of specie, to remain in complete 
ignorance of their designs ; and that a certain sum specified, 
( ten thousand dollars,) was absolutely necessary to the safety 
of the army, and to enable him to obtain such intelligence of 
the movements and precise position of the enemy on the oppo- 
site shore, as would authorize him to act offensively." Such 
was the pressing appeal : — but compliance seemed impossible. 
Congress had gone ; the treasury had long been empty; the 
citizens of Philadelphia had many of them fled, carrying their 

* Frost's U.S. 11.210. 



22 

wealth with them. Deeply and gloomily did Morris revolve 
the matter in his mind : his usual time for retiring from the 
counting room arrived, and, as he was proceeding slowly 
and sorrowfully home, he met, providentially, a member 
of the society of Friends. The gentleman was, of course, 
from his principles, no friend to war ; but Morris resolved to 
ask his aid. <' What news ?" said the Quaker. -'The most 
important news,'' he replied, <« is, that 1 require ten thousand 
dollars in specie, and that you must let me have it.^ Your se- 
curity is to be my note and my honor." — " Robert, thou shall 
have it," was the brief and characteristic reply. The money 
was promptly remitted to General Washmgton ; the requisite 
information was gained ; the victories of Trenton and Prince- 
ton followed ; and from that hour, the American eagle soared 
aloft toward heaven.* 

In 1779 or 1780, two of the most distressing years of the 
war. General Washington wrote to Judge Peters, then at the 
head of the board of war, an alarming account of the pros- 
trate condition of the military stores. There were no musket 
cartridges but those in the men's boxes, and they were wet : of 
course, if attacked, as they had every reason to apprehend, a 
retreat, or rout, was inisvitable. The Board hadakeady ex^haus- 
ted all the lead accessible to them ; having ncielted even the 
weights of clocks, and the spouts of houses ; and having of- 
fered, in vain, two shillings a pound for lead.t At an enter- 
tainment given by the Spanish minister, the same evening of 
the receipt of Washington's letter, Judge Peters, whose de- 
pression of spirits was discovered by the penetrating eye of 
Robert Morris, revealed to the latter the cause of his anxiety ; 

*Biog. ofthe Signers of the Decl. of Independ. vol. 5. pp. 199-201.. 

t When the British army arrived off New York, in June 1776, the 
Convention, apprehending an attack, ordered all the leaden window- 
Rashes, which were then common in Dutch houses, to be taken out 
for the use of the troops- Shortly after, the church bells, and even 
the brass knockers on the doors, were removed, for the purpose of be-, 
ing converted into cannon. These facts strikingly illustrate the un-. 
prepared con.diiion of tiie colonies for war. [ Life of John Jay, vol. 
I. pp. 44,48. 



23 

when, lo his astonishment and delight, Mr. Morris informed 
him that the Holkar privateer, one of his own vessels, had just 
arrived at his wharf, with ninety tons of lead, which she had 
brought as ballast. The lead had been landed at Martinique, 
and stone ballast had supplied its place ; but, from some cause, 
this had been put on shore, and the lead again taken in ! 
"I instantly left the entertainment," said Judge P., relating 
the anecdote, "sent for the proper officers, and set more than 
one hundred people to work during the night. Before morn- 
ing a supply of cartridges was ready, and sent off to the army. 
I could relate many more such occurrences.^^ * 

Let these well-attested facts suffice to illustrate the manner 
in which God heard and answered the appeal of our fathers. 
In view of such mercies, well might Franklin exclaim, "Had 
it not been for the justice of our cause, and the consequent in- 
terposition of Providence, in which we had faith, we must 
have been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I 
should now have been convinced of the being and government 
of a Deity. It is he that abases the proud and elevates the 
humble ; may we never forget his goodness to us, and ma}^ 
our future conduct manifest our gratitude, '^t Franklin was 
right. An infant nation, of scarce three million souls : at the 
beginning of the war without a navy, without an army, with- 
out an organized government, destitute of the various manufac- 
turing establishments essential for support and defence ; — we 
entered, single-handed, into a bloody conflict with the giant of 
the nations ; — with a nation whose navies swept every sea; 
whose armies were flushed with recent victories on every con- 
tinent; whose government had all the strength of maturity, and 
all the promptness and vigor of monarchy; whose manufacto- 
ries supplied the world, and poured streams of gold into the 
public treasury : we entered upon that dread conflict ; we 
fought ; we conquered ; /or God was with us. 

The war had ended, and the danger had passed. Four years 



■Eiog. Sign. Decl. vol. 5. pp. 203— 205. fDo. vol. 2. p. 125. 



24 

of peace ensued ; and every day's experience strengthened the 
conviction that we needed a government, better constituted, and 
affording more promise of permanence than that which had 
been hastily fitted up, for the emergency of a revolutionary 
war. Accordingly, on the 2Sth of May, 1787, Delegates from 
all the States, except Rhode Island, the best and ablest states- 
men in the land, assembled in Philadelphia to digest a new 
form of government for the nation. After almost four months 
of patient deliberation, earnest debate, and cautious decision, 
the Federal Convention offered to their constituents the pres- 
ent Constitution of the United States of America ;* a system 
of government, which, with the exception of one or two 
mournful features, may be justly said far to surpass any similar 
work of man. Painful indeed is it to speak of these excep- 
tions ; but who, on a review of the facts which we have been 
considering, can conceal his shame, astonishment, and indigna- 
tion, on discovering in that Constitution a licensed renewal of 
the *Bfrican slave trade, — a national act of assent to its 
continuation during a period of twenty years I Well 
might George Mason of Virginia, ( himself a member of the 
Federal Convention, ) exclaim, ( with reference to Art. 4. sec. 
9, subs. 1,) "Mr Chairman, this is a fatal section^ The 
augmentation of slaves weakens the States ; and such a trade 
is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind. Yet, by this 
Constitution, it is continued for twenty years. As much as I 
value an union of all the States, I would not admit the South- 
ern States t into the Union, unless they agreed to the discon- 
tinuance of this disgraceful trade. I cannot express my detes- 
tation of it." Well might Mr. Tyler, of Virginia, say, " My 
earnest desire is, that it should be handed down to posterity 
that I opposed this wicked clause. " 

If any thing can be more humiliating than the existence of 
such a clause in the Constitution, it is the utter selfishness, on 
the part of the East and South, that led to the adoption of an 
article by which the covenant of the fathers was so shamefully 

*A few amendments were subsequently adopted: fHe referred to 
South Carolina and Georgia. 



25 

profaned. South Carolina and Georgia, only, (to use John 
Randolph's expression, ) " stickled for the slave trade," ^ and 
threatened to abandon the union unless they were allowed its 
prosecution. Virginia, Maryland, and the middle States firm- 
ly opposed the traffic. Oh! if that Convention had stood by 
the noble Virginian, when he said. Let the *' Southern States" 
go ; but let us discharge our duty to mankind, and to God, — 
how different might have been the present fortunes of our Re- 
public ! If some Malachi could but have stood among them, 
and cried in the language of our text. Have we not all one 
Father ? hath not one God created us ? Why do we deal treach- 
erously, every man against his brother, by profaning the cov- 
enant of our fathers? — But, alasl no Malachi could have pre- 
vailed. The large majority desired to fulfil their obligations; 
but, after a protracted struggle, they sufiered principle in the 
many, to be overborne by covetousness and selfishness in the 
few. Said Rutledge of S. Carolina, a member of the Federal 
Convention, " Religion and humanity have nothing to do with 
this question. Interest alone is the governing principle with 
nations. The true question at present is, whether the South- 
ern States ( S. C. and Geo, ) shall or shall not be parties to the 
union." — "I found the Eastern States," said Luther Martin, 
another member, from Maryland, " notwithstanding their aver- 
sion to slavery, were very willing to indulge the Southern 
States, at least with a temporary liberty to prosecute the slave- 
trade, provided the Southern States would in their turn gratify 
them, by laying no restriction on the navigation acts; and after 
a very little time, the committee, by a great majority, agreed 
on a report, by which the general government was to be pro- 
hibited from preventing the importation of slaves for a limited 
time, and the restrictive clause relative to navigation acts was 
to be omitted." 

For the honor of a portion of the Federal Convention, sufier 
me to make a further quotation from the same speech. "This 
report," says Martin, "was adopted by a majority of the con- 
vention, but not without considerable opposition. It was said, 

*Congr. Debates for 1825-6. vol. 2.pt. 1. p, 127. 

C--8. 



26 

we had just assumed a place among independent nations in con- 
sequence of our opposition to the attempts of Great Britain to 
enslave us; that this opposition was grounded upon the preser- 
vation of those rights to which God and nature had entitled us, 
not in particular, but in common with all the rest of mankind; 
that we had appealed to the Supreme Being for his assistance, as 
the God of freedom, who could not but approve our eflbrts to 
preserve the rights which he had thus imparted to his creatures; 
that now, when we had scarcely risen from our knees, from 
supplicating his mercy and protection, — in forming our gov- 
ernment over a free people, a government formed pretendedly 
on the principles of liberty, and for its preservation, in that 
government to have a provision not only putting it out of its 
power to restrain and prevent the slave trade, but even encour- 
aging that most infamous traffic, by giving the States power 
and influence in the Union in proportion as they cruelly and 
wantonly sported with the rights of their fellow-creatures, 
ought to be considered as a solemn mockery of, and an insult 
to, that God whose protection we had then implored, and could 
not fail to hold us up in detestation, and render us contemptible 
to every true friend of liberty in the world. It was said, it ought 
to be considered that national crimes can only be, and frequent- 
ly are, punished in this world by national punishment; and that 
the continuance of the slave trade, and thus giving it a national 
sanction and encouragement, ought to be considered as justly 
exposing us to the displeasure and vengeance of Him who is 
equally Lord of all, and who views with equal eye the poor Af- 
rican slave, and his American master. — These reasons influ- 
enced me, both on the committee, and in the convention, most 
decidedly to oppose and vote against the clause, as it now 
makes part of the system.'' * — Such were the views and ar- 
guments of Luther Martin, a lawyer and a delegate from the 
State of Maryland. Would to God that they might have pre- 
vailed with the Convention! But his warning voice, and those 
of his compatriots, Gerry, Morris, Mason, Wilson, Randolph, 
Madison, and others, were disregarded: the covenant of our 
fathers, made in the day of their distress, was deliberately 
*See his speech delivered before the Maryland Legislature. 



27 

violated; and the violation was as deliberately confirmed by 
the voice of the nation, in their final adoption of the constitu- 
tion. 

Such was the fatal error in principle committed by the peo- 
ple of these United States at the formation of our government; 
let us glance, for a moment, at the practical operation of that 
government, with reference to this subject. It may be said, 
that, however the framers of the constitution may have erred 
in permitting the continuance of the slave trade, they yielded 
only to what they regarded as an imperative necessity; and 
that, so far as the constitution allows, our national legislation 
has been uniformly adverse to that infamous traffic. In proof 
of this it may be alleged that, by the act of May 2d,, 1807, 
Congress prohibited, under severe penalties, all further impor- 
tation of slaves after Jan. 1st., ISOS; that by the act of April 
20th., 1808, these penalties were greatly increased : that by 
the act of March 3d., 1819, vessels engaged in the slave trade 
were declared to be confiscated, and armed ships were directed 
to cruise upon the coast of Africa for the purpose of seizing 
American slavers : and, finally, that by the act of May 15th,, 
1820, the slave trade was pronounced piracy, and the doom of 
pirates was declared to await all American citizens employed 
in this nefarious business. 

Where is the American who does not wish that these facts 
were conclusive ? Who would not rejoice in the proof of the 
position, that since 1808, at least, our nation has endeavored 
to atone for former injuries against the African ; and, by her 
unwearied exertions in the cause of humanity, has offered to 
God, fruits meet for repentance of her crime ? These Congres- 
sional acts have indeed^ a fair appearance ; but, alas ! the his- 
tory of their execution mantles the patriot's face with a blush 
of shame, and swells the christian's heart with fearful forebod- 
ings of national judgment. Let the following facts be duly 
considered, and it will be painfull}^ evident, that, instead of 
bringing forth fruits of repentance for former errors, our na- 



28 

tion has gone on still in her trespasses, adding iniquity to in- 
iquity. 

I. Notwithstanding the legislative prohibition of the for- 
eign slave trade after 180S, such was the negligence of the 
proper authorities in enforcing the law, or such the difficulty 
of compelling obedience while the law was unsustained by 
public sentiment in the South, and opposed by avarice and the 
love of political power, that thousands of slaves were annually 
imported from Africa and the West Indies, long after that pe- 
riod. During a debate in Congress, in 1819, Mr. Middleton, 
of South Carolina stated, that, in his opinion, 13,000 Africans 
were annually smuggled into the United States. Mr. Wright, 
of Virginia, estimated the number at 15,000. The same year, 
Judge Story, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a^ 
charge to the Grand Jury, speaking of the slave trade, said, 
'• x\merican citizens are steeped to their very mouths (I can 
scarcely use too bold a figure,) in this stream of iniquity. " — 
On the 7th January, 1S19, Joseph Nourse, Register of the 
Treasury, in an official document submitted to Congress, certi- 
fied that there were no records in the Treasur\^ Department of 
any forfeitures under the act of 1807, abolishing the slave trade. 
As late as 1838, Mr. Elliot Cresson, of the Pennsylvania Col- 
onization Society, stated in a public address at Boston, that " out 
of 177 slave ships which arrive at Cuba every year, Jive-sixihs 
are owned and fitted out from, ports in the United States. ^ 

2. In 1823, Feb. 2Sth., the House of Representatives passed 
a resolution requesting the President of the United States to 
negotiate with foreign powers for the abolition of the iVfrican 
slave trade, and its denunciation as piracy, by the consent of 
the civilized world. In consequence of this resolution several 
treaties were formed with other nations ; but the Senate stead- 
ily refused to ratify any of them, even when they were pre- 
cisely such as ourovvn Government had proposed. Our final 
answer to the governments of Great Britain and France, as 



♦The reader is referred for a multitude of similar facts, to Jay's 
View of the action of the Federal Government in behalf of slavery. 



29 

stated in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1836, is, that "un- 
der no consideration, in no form, and with no restriction, will 
the United States enter into any convention, or treaty, or com- 
bined efibrts of any sort or kind with other nations, for the 
suppression of this trade." * 

3 Altho' our Government has professed to regard the African 
slave trade 2i.s piracy, ever since 1820, — a period of twenty- 
seven years ; — although slavers are frequently fitted out from 
American ports ; — although thousands of slaves have been im- 
ported into our own country since that time ; and although our 
national flag is notoriously disgraced by affording protection to 
numerous slave ships on the high seas ; — yet, not a single in- 
dividual, it is believed, has ever been executed for piracy , un- 
der this law, since its adoption. Within a few years past, 
the crews of several American Slavers have been seized and 
sent home for trial ; but the few who have been sentenced by 
our Courts, have been pardoned by our Presidents. 

4. Before the legal termination of the foreign slave trade 
in 1808, there sprang up between the southern States, a new, 
and, if possible, more detestable branch of this general busi- 
ness, — the domestic slave trade ; a species of traffic, which, 
receiving its earliest impulse from the very suppression of the 
African trade, and constantly stimulated by the acquisition of 
new markets in the West and South-west, has, during the last 
half century, been steadily pursued, and continually increasing. 
The character of the domestic, as compared with the foreign 
slave trade, was well drawn by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, of 
Virginia, in the legislative debate of 1832: — " The trader (Af- 
rican ) receives the slaves, a stranger in aspect, language, and 
manner, from the merchant who brought them from the interi- 
or. But here, sir, individuals whom the master has known 
from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gam- 
bles of childhood, who have been accustomed to look to him 
for protection, he tears from the mother's arms, and sells into a 



*See Jay's View &c. p. 118—126. 



30 

strange country, annonga strange people, subject to cruel task- 
masters. In my opinion it is much worse.'^ 

As to the progress and extent of this infamous business, some 
idea may be formed from the following facts. In 1829, Mr. C. 
F. Mercer asserted in the Virginia Convention, that an annual 
revenue of a million and a half of dollars was derived by that 
State alone, from the exportation of slaves. In 1S32, Thomas 
J. Randolph said, during a debate in the Legislature, that Vir- 
ginia had been converted into "one grand managerie, where 
men are reared for the market like oxen for the shambles."— 
President Dew, of William and Mary College, Virgmia, in his 
review of that debate, congratulated his fellow-citizens on the 
fact that the revenue derived from the domestic slave trade 
" encouraged breeding ;^^ and he added, " Virginia is, in fact, 
a negro-raising State for other States." In 1S36, the editor 
of the Virginia Times, asserted that 40,000 slaves were expor- 
ted for sale, from that State, within twelve months past ; afford- 
ing, as he calculated, an income of twenty-four millions of 
dollars ! In 1790, Elbridge Gerry valued all the slaves in the 
southern States at ten million dollars. * According to a report 
of a committee of the citizens of Mobile, the people of Ala- 
bama, alone, had purchased slaves from other States, during 
the four years preceding 1837, to the amount of ten million 
dollars annually.! 

The most painful and disgraceful fact remains to be told.-^ 
The capital city of that Republic which, seventy-three years 
since, covenanted "wholly to discontinue the slave trade," has 
been selected, with permission of Government, as the especial 
headquarters of the domestic slave trader. In the District of 
Columbia, "large establishments have grown up, provided with 
prisons for safe-keeping of the negroes, till a full cargo is pro- 
cured; and should the factory prisons at any time be insufficient 
the public ones, erected by Congress, are at the service of the 
slave dealers."J The more humane part of the inhabitants of 

"^ Congressional Debates, 1, 1247. tJay'sView, p. 92. jDo, 
p. 93. 



31 

that District, have repeatedly expressed their abhorrence of 
this business. So long ago as 1802, the Grand Jury of Alex- 
andria complained of it, and asked redress from Congress. — 
In 1816, Judge Morell, of the Circuit Court of the United States, 
charged the Grand Jury of Washington on this subject. In 
1827, the Alexandria Gazette said, "scarcely a week passes 
without some of these wretched creatures being driven through 
our streets. After having been confined, and sometimes man- 
acled in a loathsome prison, they are turned out in public view 
to take their departure for the South. The children and some 
of the women are generally crowded into a cart or wagon, 
while others follow on foot, not unfrequently handcuffed and 
chained together. Here, you may behold fathers and brothers 
leaving behind them the dearest objects of affection, and moving 
slowly along in the mute agony of despair; there, the young 
mother sobbing over the infant whose innocent smiles seem but 
to increase her misery. From some you will hear the burst of 
bitter lamentation; while from others, the loud, hysteric laugh 
breaks forth, denoting still deeper agonies," — In 1828, a peti- 
tion for the suppression of this trade was presented to Con- 
gress, signed by more than one thousand inhabitants of the Dis- 
trict. In 1829, the Grand Jury of Washington requested from 
Congress "the exclusion of this disgusting traffic from the Dis- 
trict.'^ — And yet, in 1838, the laws of the city of Washington 
contained the following enactment: — "i^or a license to trade 
or traffic in slaves for projit, four hundred dollars!'^ — The 
victims of avarice and lust clank their chains in the public av- 
enues! — The soul drivers muster their wretched gangs within 
sight of the Congress Halls! — pursuing, undisturbed and un- 
questioned, a business, of which the New Orleans Courier well 
said, "it would require some casuistry to show that the present 
slave trade from that quarter is a whit better than the one from 
Africa!' And these atrocious proceedings are sanctioned by 
law at the Capital of our Republic, and in a District "under the 
exclusive jurisdiction" of the Federal Government! 

''Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? 



32 

Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, 
by profaning the covenant of our fathers!" — "Shall I not visit 
for these things? saith the Lord; shall not my soul be avenged 
on such a nation a9 this?" 



DISCOURSE II. 



THE CONSEQUENCES OF COVENANT-BREAKING, 



Jer. XXXIV. 8 — 17. This is the word that came unto Jere- 
miah from the Lord, after that the kingZedekiah had made a 
covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to pro- 
claim liberty unto them; thatever}'^ man should let his man- 
servant, and every man his maid-servant, being an Hebrew or 
an Hebrevvess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, 
to wit, of a Jew his brother. Now when all the princes, and 
all the people which had entered into the covenant, heard that 
every one should let his man servant, and every one his maid 
servant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them 
any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. But afterwards 
they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom 
they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjec- 
tion for servants and for handmaids. Therefore the word of 
the Lord came to Jeremiah, from the Lord, saying, Thus saith 
the Lord, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fath- 
ers in the day that 1 brought them forth out of the land of E- 
gypt, outof the house of bond-men, saying, At the end of 
seven years, let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, 
which hath been sold unto thee, and when he hath served thee 
six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee; but your fathers 
hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. And ye were 
now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming 
liberty every man to his neighbor, and ye had made a covenant 
before me in the house which is called by name: but ye turned 
and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and 
every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their 
pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto 
you for servants and for handmaids. Therefore thus saith the 
Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, 
every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: be- 
hold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword. 



34 

to ihe pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be 
removed into all the kingdoms of the earth." 

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in these 
United States, at its recent sessions, unanimously adopted the 
following resolutions: "Resolved, That in view of the present 
posture of our national affairs, the continuance of the war, and 
its great and dreadful results, it be earnestly recommended to all 
our churches to humble themselves before Almighty God, with 
confession of their own sins and of the sins of the people, that as 
individuals and as a nation we may be forgiven; that there may 
be a speedy, righteous, and amicable adjustment of all existing 
difficulties with other nations; and that we may be permitted to 
enjoy, without interruption, the blessings of peace, — Resolved, 
That all pastors, and all others preaching statedly, be requested 
to bring this subject before the several churches in which they 
minister, on the second sabbath of July, or as soon after as may 
be convenient, and to urge upon our people the duty pointed out 
m the foregoing resolution." 

In accordance with the Assembly's request, I invite your at- 
tention to the present posture of our national affairs, as 
connected with the Mexican tvar; and to the duty of Amer- 
ican christians and patriots, in view of our dangerous and 
critical condition as a nation. 

But how shall I discuss such a subject without departing, in 
some measure, from the ordinary routine of pulpit discourses? 
How can the present posture of our national affairs be under- 
stood, (in view of which we are called upon to humble our- 
selves,) without adverting to their past history? — without 
touching upon topics of political history, in regard to which 
there is the utmost sensitiveness in the public mind? — without 
trespassing upon party politics, and perhaps awakening un- 
friendly party feelings? I well know the exceeding reluctance 
with which the American public, and even the American Chris- 
tian public, allow a Minister of the Gospel to intermeddle with 
political affairs, especially in the pulpit; and I cordiall)' admit 



35 

the propriety of that reluctance. A clergyman is, indeed, a cit- 
izen, enjoying public benefits, sharing public burdens, and suf- 
fering public calamities, in common with his fellow-citizens; 
but he is one, "separated," by the appointment of Christ, with 
his own cheerful consent, "separated unto the gospel of God." 
Like other men, he is liable to err, and to view the conduct of 
his rulers through one or other distorting party medium. In 
the church and community for whose spiritual welfare he la- 
bors, there are men of every shade of political complexion, 
some of whom he can scarcely avoid offending by political dis- 
cussions. Besides, the great interests of the Redeemer's king- 
dom have but a remote connection with the ordinary topics of 
political party controversy. 

And yet there are, now and then, in the course of a genera- 
tion, certain great questions agitating the public mind; — not 
tariff questions, nor bank questions; least of all, presidential 
questions, and petty squabbles between the ins and the outs at 
the public crib; — but certain great national questions, in which 
politics and morals, and the common prosperity and safety, are 
so intermingled and equally concerned as scarcely to admit of 
separate consideration; and which yet demand that the voice, 
not only of the professed politician, and of the common citi- 
zen, but also of the christian preacher, should be loudly lifted 
up. The British revolution of 1648 involved such a question; 
of which Baxter shrewdly remarks, "whereas the king's party 
usually say that it was the seditious preachers that stirred up 
the people, and were the cause of the king's overthrow, I an- 
swer, that it is partly true, and partly not"* Our own revo- 
lutionary struggle, so recently commemorated, affords another 
example in point; nor were the public then unwilling that the 
influence of the christian ministry should be openly exerted 
in behalf of liberty.t The elder Adams, describing the actors 

* Life and times, fol. p. 34. 

f'The inhabitants of New England," says Botta, " being extreme- 
ly attached to religion, and more easily influenced by this than any- 
other motive, the preachers exercised over their minds an authority 
scarcely conceivable. They often insisted, and always with new 
vehemence, that the cause of the Americans was the cause of Heav-^ 



36 

"intliereal American revolution, the radical change in the 
principles and affections of the American people," refers to 
Dr. Mayhew, of Boston, as one who exerted a vast influence 
in effecting the change, particularly by a sermon preached on 
the 30th. January, 1750, on passive obedience and non-resist- 
ance. 

I may be mistaken, but it is my deliberate and deep convic- 
tion that the question of slavery, as connected with the pres- 
ent posture of our national affairs, and with the war, presents 
another of these great politico-moral subjects, which cannot be 
wholly excluded froni the pulpit, unless the pulpit prove faith- 
less to truth, faithless to the church, faithless to the public, and 
to God. 

In tracing, as I propose to do, the progress of slavery in this 
country, its relation to the Mexican war, and its bearings on 
the future prospects of our nation, it is my chief design to 
show that the just and holy God, who presides over the affairs 
of men, has already fearfully punished our breach of covenant ; 
and that, by successive events in our national career. He has, 
for many, years, been manifesting that terrible catastrophe, 
which, without repentance, must inevitably and speedily over- 
take us. If compelled to introduce a large number of histori- 
cal facts, unusual in a sermon, let it be remembered that no 
small part of the Bible is history, developing God's providen- 
tial government of men and nations. These facts I shall en- 
deavor so to present as to avoid even the suspicion of political 
partizanship ; 1 shall assert nothing without documentary evi- 
dence ; and if the facts adduced should involve conclusions 
contrary to pre-conceived opinions, let not the patriot-christian 
reject them, without a full, fair, and candid examination of the 
evidence upon which those conclusions are founded. 

en ; that God loves and protects freemen, and holds the authors of ty- 
ranny in abhorrence ; that the schemes of the English ministers a- 
gainst America were, beyond measure, unjust and tyrannical, and 
consequently it was their most rigorous duty, not only as men and cit- 
izens, but also as christians, to oppose these attempts ; and to unite 
under their chiefs, in defence of what man has the most precious, re- 
ligion the most sacred. " Hist, of the War of Indep. vol. 1 . p. 155. 



37 

« As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to 
man," ( Prov. 27: 19,) Human nature, in other words, is every 
where the same. Our text is an historical statement of the 
short-sighted wickedness committed by the people of Jerusa- 
lem, on a certain occasion ; and a denunciation of the Divine 
judgments upon the transgressors. The princes, and wealthy 
and powerful Jerusalemites, had enslaved their poor brethren. 
When a Chaldean army was laying siege to Jerusalem, ( Jer, 
37: 5.) at the instance of the prophet, ( who, by the way, scru- 
pled not to preach against political slavery, ) these people cov- 
enanted to free their slaves. Subsequently, however, when an 
Egyptian army raised the siege, and delivered the former slave- 
holders from their fears, forgetful, both of the natural rights 
of their brethren, and the recent covenant with God, they com- 
pelled the emancipated bondmen to return to their former un- 
happy condition. Hereupon, the great God, doubly oflended 
by their oppression, tlieir hypocritical repentance, and their 
covenant-breaking, commissioned Jeremiah to proclaim for 
them, in language of awful irony, "a liberty to the sword, to 
the famine, and to the pestilence." 

Precisely such, as has been already demonstrated, was the 
conduet of our fathers. The simple truth was told by Luther 
Martin, before the Maryland Legislature, when he said,-— "*/^/ 
this time, ( 1788 ) we do not generally hold this commerce 
(the African slave-trade) in so great abhorrence as 
we have done. When our liberties were at stake^ we 
warmly felt for the common rights of men. The danger 
being thought to be past which threatened ourselves^ we are 
daily growing more insensible to those rights, " 

It must be admitted, in regard to the great and good men 
who formed our Federal Constitution, as well as in regard to 
the people generally who adopted it, that they were drawn 
from the path of duty by no ordinary temptations, The old 
Confederation had proved a rope of sand, A new constitU'- 
tion of government must be adopted ; and it seemed highly 
1 important if not absolutely indispensable^ to the common safe- 



38 

ly, that all the old thirteen States should be united in support 
of that government. But South Carolina and Georgia posi- 
tively refused, at least through their representatives in the Fed- 
eral Convention, to enter the Union, unless they were allowed 
to trade in the bodies and souls of men ; and some other States 
desired that the slaves already in their possession should be ta- 
ken into account in the matter of representation. What 
should be done ? The covenant of the fathers must be viola- 
ted, and the rights of man be trampled under foot, at least for 
a time ; — or, on the other hand, all their fair hopes of a peace- 
ful, prosperous republic must be hazarded, perhaps blight- 
ed forever ! No wonder that more than forty days, one third 
of the whole time occupied in forming the constitution, were 
spent, in Convention, in adjusting the question of slavery.* — 
The crisis was indeed a fearfjl one. Upon the decision of that 
question depended the destiny of this vast country. The Scrip- 
ture says, " Blessed is he that endureth temptation :" unhap- 
pily, our fathers did not endure, but yielded. Apparently for- 
getting that to compromise principle is to sin against God, they 
resolved on a compromise. A representation for three-iifths 
of the slaves, and an agreement to forbid the prohibition of the 
slave-trade by Congress until 1800, were offered. South Car- 
olina and Georgia were still dissatisfied. 1808 was substituted 
for 1800: — and the bargain was completed ! 

I would by no means insinuate, however, that the framers of 
the Constitution, flinging honor and conscience to the winds, 
made a delibeiate sacrifice of their principles. Far from it : 
they were incapable of such folly and wickedness. On the 
contrary, they persuaded themselves, with many misgivings no 
doubt^ that notwithstanding the concessions of the Constitution, 
both the slave-trade, and slavery itself, would soon terminate 
throughout the Republic. Some States had already abolished 
slavery ; others were preparing to do so ; it was believed that 
the rest would follow so honorable an example ; and it was a 
matter of general understanding that ?zo neiv slave States 



*Essay on the Distr. of Columbia, p, 29. 



39 

Would be admitted into the Union. These statements are 
capable of unquestionable proof. 

By the Federal Constitution itself, (Art. 1. sec. 9) it was deter- 
mined that "The migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the S^iites Jiow existing shall think proper to admit, shall not 
be prohibited by Congress prior to the year 1808," &c,, — thus 
clearly showing that Congress might at once prohibit both the 
migration and importation of slaves, in respect to any new 
States thereafter to be admitted. This position is confirmed by 
a comparison of this section with the sixth article of the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 for the government of the North West Territo- 
ry; an ordinance adopted by the old Congress, while the Fed- 
eral Convention was in session ; and re-affirmed by the first 
Constitutional Congress. That article provides, that any per- 
son escaping into the said Territory, "from whom labor 
or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original 
States, may be redeemed " &c.* 

In the Federal Convention, Mr. Pinckney, of South Caroli- 
na, said, "South Carohna can never receive the plan if it pro- 
hibits the slave-trade. — If the State's be all left at liberty on this 
subject, J!^oulh Carolina may perhaps, by degrees, do of herself 
vvhqt is wished, as Virginia and Maryland have already done.''* 
Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, observed, "that the abolition of 
slavery seemed to be going on in the United States, and that 
the good sense of the several States would probably by de- 

*John Jay, the first Chief Justi6*eof the Supreme Court of the Uni- 
ted States, said, in reference i3 this subject,— -" To nie the constitu- 
tional authority'of the Congress to prohibit the migration and impor- 
tation of slaves into any of the States, does not appear questionable. 
---I understand the sense and meaning of this clause ( Art. 1. sec. 9, 
of the Constitution ) to be, that the power of the Congress, aitho com- 
petent to prohibit such migration and importation, was not to be ex- 
ercised witii respect to the then existing' States ( and them only) until 
the ypar 1808; but that the Congress were at liberty to make such pro- 
hibition as to any new State, which might, in the mean time, be es- 
tablished: and further, that from and after that period, they were au- 
thorized to make such prohibition, as to all the States, whether new 
orold." Lite of Jay, vol. 1. p. 453. 



4(f 

grees complete it." — Mr. Ell&worth, of Cotinecticut, said^ 
" Slavery, in time, will not be a speck in our country, "* 

In the Massachusetts Convention for adopting the Federal 
Constitution, Mr, Dawes remarked, "Altho slavery is not' 
smitten by an apoplexy, yet it has received a mortal wound, 
and will die of a consumption.*' — Gen. Heath said, " The Fed- 
eral Convention went as far as they could: the migration and 
importation &c. is confined to the States now existing, only ; 
new States cannot claim it. Congress, by their ordinance for 
erecting new States, some time since, declared that the new 
States should be republican, and that there should be no slave- 
ry 



in them. " 



In the Pennsylvania Convention, Judge Wilson, (one of the 
framers of the Constitution,) observed, " In a few years I hope 
the slave-trade will be prohibited altogether ; anil in the mean 
time, the new States which are to be formed, will be under the 
control of Congress in this particular ; and slaves will never 
be mtroduced among them,— Yet the lapse of a few years, and 
Congress will have power to exterminate slavery from within 
our borders !" 

In the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry said, "Another 
thing will contribute to bring this event ( emancipation) abt)ut; 

slavery is detested — we feel its fatal effects — we deplore it 

with all the pity of humanity." — Mr. Johnson said, " They 
tell us that they see a progressive danger of bringing about e- 
mancipation. The principle has begun since the revolution. 
Let us do what we may, it will come round. '' 

It is by no means surprising that such hopes should have been 
entertained, in view of the following, among many similar 
facts, which were then of recent occurrence. In 1777, Ver- 
mont prohibited slavery by her Constitution. In 1778, the 
General i^ssembly of Virginia passed a law prohibiting, under 
heavy penalties, the further importation of slaves ; and decla- 



See Debates in the Federal Convention, Aug, 21, 22, 1787, 



41 

ring that every slave imported thereafter, should be immediate- 
ly free. The example of Virginia was followed, before the 
date of the Federal Constitution, by most of the other States.* 
In 1780, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania passed laws for the 
abolition of slavery. In the act of the latter, it was said, " We 
conceive it be our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our power, 
to extend a portion of that freedom to others which has been 
extended to us. Weaned by a long course of experience from 
those narrow prejudices and partfalities we had imbibed, we 
find our hearts enlarged with kindness and benevolence toward 
men of all conditions and nations."! In 1782, Virginia pass- 
ed her celebrated manumission act ; under which, within nine 
years, nearly e/ez;e;z thousand slaves were voluntarily emanci- 
pated by their masters.^ In 1784, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
and New Hampshire, abolished slavery. In 1787, Maryland 
passed an act legalizing manumission ; and the progress of 
emancipation under that act was astonishing.§ In the same 
year, as has been already remarked, (July 13th, 1787,) the 
Congress of the Confederation, sitting in Philadelphia, where 
the Federal Convention was then engaged in framing the Con- 
stitution, adopted the well-known Ordinance for the govern- 
ment of the North West Territory, comprehending what is 
now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Be- 
tween 1781 and 1786, New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, 
and Connecticut, had surrendered their respective claims upon 
this territory, in favor of the General Government. -^ Virgin- 
ia made her cession, March 1, 1784, and during the month fol- 
lowing, a plan for the temporary government of the newly ac- 
quired territory came under discussion. On the 19th of April, 
Mvs Spaight, of North Carolina^ moved to strike from that 
plan, which had been reported by Mr. Jefferson, a provision 
for prohibiting slavery north-west of the Ohio, after the year 
1800, — and this motion prevailed, ^^\^ Subsequently, howev- 
er, the plan was changed, and then passed unanimously. The 

*Walsh's Appeal, p. 318. Jefferson's Notes on Va., p. 171. 
tEss. on Distr. of Columbia, p. 27. f Judge Tucker's Diss, on 
slavery, p. 72. §Ess. Distr. Col. p. 33. JAnnals of the West, 
p. 292. 



42 



I 



5i>^A article, as inally ac'optecl, " forever to remain unaltera- 
ble," was as follows; "There shall be neither slavery nor in- 
voluntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the 
punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted:" &c. — This was then the whole and sole territory 
belonging to the United States, out of which new States could 
be carved. 

Referring to this act of the old Congress, Mr, Sargeant, of 
Philadelphia, said, in the House of Representatives, when argu- 
ing the Missouri question, — "From the Minutes of the Fed- 
eral Convention it will be seen, that the two most important 
and difficult points to adjust, were those of the admission of 
new States, and the slave representation. The ordinance ( of 
17S7) finally adjusted both the matters, as far as concerned all 
the territories then belonging to the United States, and was 
therefore eminently calculated to quiet the minds of the advo- 
cates of freedom ; to remove their objections to the principle 
of slave representation; and to secure their consent to the in- 
strument which contained that principle, by limitmg its opera- 
tion to the existing States. It is not to be questioned, that this 
ordinance, unanimously adopted, and, as it were, fixing an un- 
changab'e basis by common consent, had a most powerful influ- 
ence in bringing about the adoption of the Constitution."* 

It was in view of all these facts, then, that many of the fra- 
TTiers of the Constitution, and the people of the United States 
adverse to slavery, persuaded themselves, that, despite the com- 
oromises of that instrument, the whole system would be speed- 
ily and forever abolished. We, who look back over a period 
of sixty years passed since the formation of the Constitution, 
and behold, not six, hu\. fifteen slave States ; not six hundred 
thousand slaves, hwifive times that number — a body of 
bond-men equal to the entire population of the United States 
in 1790; — who have recently witnessed the annexation of a 
new State; eight times as large as Ohio, under a Constitution 
guaranteeing perpetual slavery ; and who await with trembling 



*Niles' Register, July 22, 1820, 



43 

:anxiety the probable annexation of immenpe regions in the south» 
west, already wrested by military violence from a sister Re- 
public, with the evident intention of strengthening the slave- 
power, — long since become predominant in this confede^ 
racy ; — lue^ I say, cannot but feel how lamentably these fond 
hopes of the fathers have been disappointed: nor can we be at 
much loss to ascertain the causes of that disappointment. 

1. In a Constitution ordained "to establish justice, promote 
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to them- 
selves and their posterity," they had permitted a renewal and 
continuation of the African slave-trade for twenty years: and 
well did Madison say, in the Federal Convention, "Twenty 
years will produce ail the mischief that can be apprehended 
from the liberty to import slaves. " Well did Mason, of Vir- 
ginia, add, " All would be in vain, if South Carolina and Geor- 
gia be at liberty to import. The Western people are already 
calling out for slaves ior their new lands ; and will fill 
THAT COUNTRY WITH SLAVES, if they Can be got through South 
Carolina and Georgia.''* Their words, as the result has 
mournfully attested, were characterized by almost prophetical 



2. The provision of the Constitution, ( Art. 1. sec, 2. sub- 
sec. 3. ) by which three fifths of the slaves were to be inclu- 
ded in the basis of representation to Congress, operated pow- 
erfully to encourage the importation and increase of that spe- 
cies of population: for, as political power is expressed by 
representation ; and as, by the Constitution, the more 
slaves the larger the representation ; and as the States 
possessing this peculiar privilege would naturally associate for 
the defence and enlargement of their prerogatives ; southern 
politicians saw at once their interest in multiplying, both the 
number of slaves in each State, and the number of slave States. 
These natural consequences of such a representation were 
plainly presented in the Federal Convention. Said Luther 



^Debates, Aug, 22, 25, 1787. 



44 

Martin "to take slaves into the account in giving representa* 
tion, tended to encourage the slave trade, and to make it the 
interest of the States to continue that infamous traffic." Mr. 
Madison said, "It seemed now to be pretty well understood, 
that the real difference of interests lay, not between the large 
and small, but between the northern and southern States. The 
institution of slavery, and its consequences, formed the line of 
discrimination." Gouverneur Morris observed, "that he could 
never agree to give such encouragement to the slave trade, by 
allowing them a representation for their negroes," And on 
another occasion, — " The train of business, and the late turn 
which it had taken, had led him, ( he said ) into deep medita- 
tion on it, and he would candidly state the result. A distinc- 
tion had been set up, and urged, between the northern and 
southern States. He had hitherto considered this doctrine as 
heretical. He still thought the distinction groundless. He 
sees, however, that it is persisted in ; and the southern gentle- 
men will not be satisfied unless they see the way open to their 
gaining the majority in the public^councils. '' 

3. The revival of the foreign slave trade, under circumstan- 
ces adapted to stimulate that atrocious business ; the certainty 
of increased political power proportioned to the numerical in- 
crease of bond-men ; the invention of machinery by which the 
value of slave labor was greatly increased ; together with the 
prospect of gain to the older States from the opening of new 
markets in the west and south-west for the domestic slave trade, 
naturally and necessarily effected a radical change of public 
sentiment in the South, relative to the whole system of slave- 
ry. The public mind, as we have seen, was already becoming 
more and more insensible to the wrongs of the colored man: — 
the several considerations just adverted to, greatly increased 
that insensibility: the revolutionary leaders, and their compat- 
riots, who had learned by experience the hatefulness of oppres- 
sion, and the value of freedom, were fast passing away; a mul- 
titude of citizens, especially of christian citizens, residing in 
the South, wearied with an evil whose removal they had failed 
to effect, emigrated to the free West; the advocates of slavery 



45 

daily multiplied: and the ultimate result has been, that not B. 
Carolina and Georgia merely, but the whole of the slave-hold- 
ing States, have become the apologists, if not the advocates, of 
slavery, and have uniformly labored together for its further 
extension.* 

4. Worst of all — that great and dreadful God, to whom, in 
the hour of distress, we had publicly appealed for help in the 
defence of our liberty; who had heard our cry, and granted us 
deliverance;and who looks with equal eye upon the poor African 
and the proud Anglo-American, saw our faithlessness to our own 
principles, and could not but be deeply offended by the violation 
of. our national covenant. I cannot affirm that he said to 
us, in his heart, as he said to the Jews by the prophet, — "Ye 
have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty every one 
to his brother, and every man to his neighbor; behold, I pro- 
claim a liberty for you, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to 
the famine." Nor, notwithstanding all the blessings which we 
have since received, can any man affirm the contrary; iovthe end 
is not yet disclosed to the view of mortals. But one thing is un- 
questionable, as our whole subsequent history, and the present 
posture of our national affairs, demonstrate; — he has made our 
sin our punishment; and there is great reason to fear that he 
will yet make it the instrument of our final, irremediable ruin. 
The proof of this I proceed to adduce, by tracing, in brief 
and rapid outline, the history of the extension of American 
slavery. 

In February, 1791, — two years after the organization of our 
present government, — Kentucky, i\\Q eldest of the new States, 



*i do not wish to be understood, here, as denying that there have 
been, and noK? are, in the slave-holding States, many thousands of 
true patriots and sincere christians, who hate slavery, and are deci- 
dedly opposed to its extension, i speak of the southern States, aet- 
ing as such, on the political arena: and their votes upon the Missouri 
question*, and thR annexation of Texas, are a sufficient evidence of 
the truth stated above. Unhappily, the anti-slavery sentiment, ex- 
isting, I trust, in a host of southern bosoms, has seldom sufficiently 
influenced their political leaders. May God, in infinite mercy both to 
Lhem and us, increase that influence a thousand fold! 



46 

applied for admission into the Union. A similar applicatior? 
had been made, in 1788, to the old Congress of the Confedera- 
tion; but, after long debate, the matter had been referred to the 
new government, for reasons which were thus disclosed by the 
Representative of Kentucky, in a letter to his constituents: — 
"The eastern States would not, nor do I think they ever will, 
assent to the admission of the District into the Union; as an 
independent State, unless Vermont, or the province of Maine, 
is brought forward at the same time. The change which has 
taken place in the general government is made the ostensible 
objection to the measure; but the jealousy of the growing im- 
portance of the western country, and unwillingness to add a 
vote to the southern interest, are the real causes of o*[3posi- 
tion."* In the Convention which formed the constitution of 
Kentucky, the Rev, David Rice, a Presbyterian Minister, put 
forth a powerful effort to obtain a constitutional provision for the 
abolition of slavery. The effort proved abortive; and Kentucky 
asked admission as a slave state. Nor could her request be easily 
denied by Congress, whatever "unwillingness" there might be, 
on the part of many, to strengthen "the southern interest;" for 
Kentucky, as apart of T^^/r^mza, had already been represent- 
ed in the old Congress; and moreover, if rejected, it was by no 
means impossible that her bold and spirited sons would declare 
themselves independent, and establish a new Republic west of 
the AUeghanies, Accordingly, in 1792, the twin sisters, Ken- 
tucky and Vermont, were received into the family of States. — 
Here was the first step in the extension of slavery under the 
Federal Constitution. 

Some years afterward, Tennessee desired admission as a State. 
The territory comprehended within its limits had formerly be- 
longed to North Carolina, and had been ceded by her, in 1790, 
to the United States, with the express condition "that no regu- 
lation made, or to be made, by Congress, should tend to emanci- 
pate slaves." This condition in the act of cession occasioned 
some discussion in that body, when the act in question was 



*Perkins' Annals of the West, p. 313. 



47 

brought before them for their approval. An amendment was 
offered, and defeated;* but, as it was highly desirable that the 
United States should acquire possession of that, as well as all 
the other unoccupied western territory claimed by the several 
States ; and as it was known that Tennessee could be secured 
on no other terms , the amendment was rejected, and the cess- 
ion accepted with the conditions specified. Bound by this a- 
greement, of course, Congress admitted Tennessee, in 1796, as 
the second new slave State. 

In the same year, an attempt was made to introduce slavery 
into the North Western Territory, where, as above mentioned, 
it had been forever prohibited by the ordinance of 1787. — 
Four persons, in behalf of the inhabitants of St. Clair and 
Randolph counties, ( Illinois, ) petitioned congress to legalize 
the holding of slaves among them ; alledging that they were 
then, and long had been, in possession of that species of prop- 
erty : and, inasmuch as their slaveholding was contrary to the 
••organic law'' of the territory, they modestly requested that 
august body so to modify the law as that it might not conflict 
with their practices in this particular!! The same subject was 
brought before Congress in 1803, and again in 1804; when the 
following resolution was offered in the House of Representa- 
tives: '•Resolved, That the sixth article of the ordinance of 
1787, which prohibited slavery within the said territory, be 
suspended, in a qualified manner, for ten years, so as to per- 
mit the introduction of slaves," <§'c. In 1806, the same reso- 
lution was agam offered. Finally, in 1807, the subject was in- 
troduced before Congress, upon a representation by the House 
of Representatives and Legislative Council of the Territory. — 
The National Representatives were asked by their committee 
to approve the step; but in the Senate a different view was taken, 
and it was declared inexpedient to suspend the ordinance. — 
Thus, through thp blessing of Providence, a nefarious scheme 
to curse this free West with the evils of slavery, — a scheme 



*See Gales and Seaton's Hist, of Debates in Congress, vol.2, 
p. )528. tAmer. State Papers, vol. 16. p. 68 , 



48 

which had been steadily pursued for eleven years, — was finally 
and forever defeated,** 

In 1802, after a long-protracted controversy, articles of a- 
greement and cession between the United States and Georgia 
were drawn up, by which the latter ceded to the former her 
claim to the territory now constituting the States of Mississippi 
and Alabama, on certain conditions, the fifth of which was as 
follows: ^♦Thatthe territory thus ceded shall form a State, and 
be admitted as such into the Union, as soon as it shall contain 
sixty thousand fiee inhabitants, or at an earlier period, if Con- 
gress shall think it expedient, on the same conditions and re- 
strictions, with the same privileges, and in the same manner, 
as is provided in the ordinance of Congress of the 13th. July, 
1787, for the government of the Western Territory of the 
United States ; which ordinance shall, in all its parts, extend to 
the territory contained in the present act of cession, that article 
only excepted which forbids slaver3\" By the second of these 
articles, "The United States accept the cession above mention- 
ed, and on the conditions therein expressed."! In accordance 
with this agreement, Mississippi and Alabama were admitted, 
the one in 1817, the other in 1819, as additional slave States.^ 

In 1803, the United States purchased from France, for fifteen 
millions dollars, the immense region west of the Mississippi, 
then called Louisiana Territory. It equalled in extent the 
whole United States, as at that time bounded ; and contained 
a population, chiefly around New Orleans, of about eighty-five 
thousand souls, one half of whom were slaves.§ Our Gov- 
ernment desired, at first, to secure only a small portion of 
Louisiana ; but Napoleon, it is said, resolved to sell the whole 



*Annals of the West, p. 507: and the State Papers there referred to. 
fPublicLand laws, Appendix, vol. 1. 

J" The States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, 
admitted into the Union previously to (Missouri) were made subject 
to no restrictions, (relative to slavery;) as they were taken frofh States 
in which slavery existed. From that consideration no attempt was 
made in Congress to restrict these States in this respect," Bradford')^ 
Hist, of Federal Government, p. 267. 

§Frost*s U. States, vol. 4. p, 25. 



49 

ov none : the West demanded an outlet for its productions ; 
our government desired to exclude French ambition from the 
continent; and last, but not least, the slave-power wanted room 
for future expansion. In due time, that power accomplished 
its designs ; and planted its forces, under the protection of the 
Federal Government, on the west bank of the Mississippi.— 
The southern portion of the purchased territory, Louisiana, 
was admitted into the Union, in 1811, as a slave State ; "for 
there," (to use the language of John Sergeant in 1820,)^«< sla- 
very existed to an extent which left no alternative." 

In 1819, East and West Florida were purchased of Spain for 
five millions of dollars, in accordance with the provisions of a 
treaty with that power, conducted, on our part, by John Quin- 
cy Adams, Secretary of State under President Monroe. By 
that treaty, a boundary line was established between the United 
States and the Spanish Mexican dominions ; the river Sabine, 
between Louisiana and Texas, constituting part of that line. Mr. 
Adams was anxious to secure Texas also, and to make the Rio 
Grande, or at least the Colorado, instead of the Sabine, our south- 
west boundary. With all his arguments, eloquence, and address, 
however, he failed to obtain the province by treaty ; and altho 
the last member of the American Cabinet to abandon the at- 
tempt, he at length accepted the Sabine as our limit.* 

Refering to this treaty, the National Intelligencer of Febru- 
ary, 1819, said, "It terminates the only existing controversy 
with any of the European powers. It rounds off our southern 
possessions, and forever precludes foreign emniissaries from 
stirring up Indians to war, and Negroes to rebellion; whilst it 
gives to the southern country important outlets to the sea. It 
adjusts the vast v>^estern boundary, acknowledging the Uni- 
ted States to be sovereign, under the hitherto contested Louisi- 
ana treaty, over all the territory we ever seriously contended 
for." Mr. Niles, however, remarks, t that ^* some of our cit- 
izens are dissatisfied with the south-western boundary, and de- 

*See Niles' Register, vol. 37, p. 40L tRegister 29th May, 
1819. 

E-«»5. 



50 

sire to possess the country to the Rio del Norte, ( Rio 
Grande,) as laid down in Mellish's map; which would 
give us the whole province of Texas, and a great extent of 
coast on the Mexican gulf." One of the most distinguished of 
these dissatisfied citizens was henry Clay, who, on the 2Sth 
March, 1820, introduced into the House of Representatives 
two resolutions, the second of which was as follows; "Re- 
solved, That the equivalent proposed to be given by Spain to 
the United States, in the treaty concluded by them on the22d. 
February, 1819, for that part of the territory of Louisiana ly- 
ing west of the Sabine, was inadequate ; and that it would be 
inexpedient to make a transfer thereof to any foreign power ; 
or to renevv the aforesaid treaty."* 

The ratification of the treaty by Spain, in October, 1820, 
and by the United States in 1821, silenced these complaints ; 
settled the boundary question ; and secured to our country 
the Floridas. In this connection it may be proper to introduce 
a paragraph from Niles' Register, of August 28th 1819: he 
says, " In anticipation of a transfer of the Floridas, a large 
quantity of African slaves are imported therein ; no doubt by 
American citizens." In the light of this statement it will be 
readily perceived that, on the admission of Florida into the 
Union, in 1845, as another slave State, "slavery existed there 
to an extent which left no alternative." 

In 1818, the inhabitants of Missouri asked of Congress per- 
mission to form a constitution, and organize a State government- 
Missouri was a part of the territory purchased from France ; 
and, since 1804, together with the rest of what was called, first 
Louisiana, and afterwards Missouri, Territory, had been placed 
by Congress under the control of the Governor and Judges of 
Indiana Territory, where slavery was prohibited. '• It was be- 
lieved, " said Mr. Taylor, a member of Congress from New- 
York, t ''that these officers would apply. to Missouri the same 
principles of government on which they were bound to ad- 

*Niles' Register, vol, 18, p. 85. tSee his Speech in the Ho, 
of Reps, in 1820, Niles' Register, vol. 18, p. 20, &c. 



51 

tttinister that of Indiana Territory. Unhappily for Missouri, 
these gentlemen entertained different views, and suffered the 
evil to increase without an effort to retard it." 

Slavery had, therefore, been gradually and silently intro- 
duced ; and when it was proposed in Congress, on her admis- 
sion, to prohibit the increase, and ultimately to terminate the 
existence of that evil, Missouri resisted; she refused to submit 
to the restriction ; the slave S ates rallied to her support ; and 
now, for the first time since the formation of the Constitution, 
the people at large in the free States began to discover the ex- 
istence, designs, and might}- influence of the Slave Power. 
The generation of 1820 had, indeed, sprung into existence since 
1787 ; but the old men remembered how it was said, in their 
early days, that slavery would soon die, and that there were to 
be no more slave States. They had seen the falsehood of these 
-assertions demonstrated by the successive admission of Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana ^ and 
now Missouri sought to swell the number. The various pleas 
which had been successfully urged in behalf of the former, 
were wholly inapplicable to the last: Missouri was neither a 
part ol one of the old slave States ; nor was slavery so ro.oted 
there as to retjider its er4di<Mtion hopeless. In short, it was 
manifest that Mif^souri wa?^ to be admitted as a slave State, only 
that she might promote the pecuniary and political interest of a 
power, unknown and antagonistic to the Genius of Freedom. 
It was clearly seen, too, how great a change had already been 
effected in soutliern public sentiment toward slavery. The el- 
oquent and indignant denunciations of that system, uttered 
thirty years before by Martin, and Mason, and MadisOn, and 
Jefferson, and Tyler, and Randolph, and Henry, were no longer 
repeated by Maryland and Virginia. On the contrary, these 
States were found among ihe foremost advocates for the exten- 
sion of slavery.'* The consideration of these alarming facts 
thoroughly awakened the free States ; who resisted, with be- 
coming spirit, the unrestricted admission of Missouri, The 



^^ee the Resolutions of the Virginia House of Delegates, in 
Niles' Register, vol. 17, pp. 34?-^344. 



52 

conflict which followed shook the Republic to its foundation.,' 
Said De Witt Clinton, in his message to the New York Legis- 
lature, "I consider the interdiction of the extension of slavery, 
a paramount consideration. Morally and politically speaking, 
shivery is an evil of the first magnitude, and whatever may 
be the consequences, it is our duty to prohibit its progress/in 
cases where such prohibition is allowed by the Constitution. — 
No evil can result from its prohibition more pernicious than its 
toleration."* In the Congressional debates, Mr. Sergeant, of 
Philadelphia, thus portrayed the nature and importance of the 
decision about to be made: "It will be rem.embered that this 
is the first step ( of slavery ) beyond the Mississippi. The 
State of Louisiana is no exception, for there slavery existed to 
an extent which left no alternative. It is the last step, too; for 
this is the last stand that can be made. Compromise is forbid- 
den by the principles eontended for on both sides: any com- 
promise that would give slavery to Missouri is out of the ques- 
tion. It is, therefore, the final, irrevocable step, and must lead 
to an immeasurable spread of slavery beyond the Mississippi. 
— The case is indeed an important one ; but its importance is 
derived altogether from its connection with the extension, in- 
definitely, of negro slavery, over a land which I trust Provi- 
dence has destined for the labor and support of freemen.- — Ad- 
mit the State without restriction, — the power is gone for- 
ever, and with it are forever gone all the efforts that have been 
made by the non-slaveholding States to repress and limit the 
sphere of slavery, and enlarge and extend the blessing of free- 
dom, "t 

Mr. Taylor, of New York, said, " The representation in 
Congress allowed for slaves was matter of compromise. The 
extent of this concessio n was suppo.sed to be seen, and clearly 
understood. It was believed that it could not be carried be- 
yond the then existing States, and possibly to the territory 
;hen in dispute between the United States and Georgia. It did 
not apply to foreign territory. If you can claim it as incident 

*Niles' Reg., vol. 17, p. 381. tNiles' Reg., July 22d, 1820 



53 

to the power of admittlng.nevv States, you may stretch the 
principle to I know not what length. The words of the Con- 
stitution may not be violated, but its spirit will be disregard- 
ed."* — The light in which the Missouri question was regard- 
ed by the slave-holding party that controled the southern States, 
may be learned from a remark dropped by CoL Benton, du- 
ring a speech delivered ten years afterward ( in 1830) in the 
United States Senate; '' The contest, upon its face, was a ques- 
tion of slavery, and the rights of free negroes and mulattoes; 
in its hearty it was a question of political power ,^^\ 

I need not remind you that in this fearful contest the friends 
of freedom were unsuccessful ; and unsuccessful only because 
the representatives of the free States were not, all of them, 
faithful to their trust. On a final vote in the Senate, tlie amend- 
ment prohibitory of slavery was rejected by a majority of elev- 
en: seven Senators from the free States, a number sufficient to 
have turned the scale, voting with the majority. In the House 
of Representatives, after decided majorities had repeatedly 
sustained t!ie prohibitory enactment relative to Missouri, and 
had even passed a resolution to secure the ultimate emancipa- 
tion of slaves in the territory of Arkansas, — on the final vote, 
chiefly through the eloquence, influence, and indefatigable ex- 
ertion of Henry Clay^ a bare majority of three was obtained 
for concurrence with the Senate. Of those who finally voted 
in favor of slavery, four were from Massachusetts, two from 
Connecticut, one from Rhode Island, two from New York, 
three from New Jersey, and one from Delaware ; together 
with all the members present from Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Lou- 
isiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. 

As, in 1787, the framers of the Constitution compromised by 
yielding to slavery all the privileges necessary to secure its 
perpetuity ; so, in 1820, the representatives of the free States 
compromised by yielding all the territory in which slave labor 

*Niles' Reg. IS, p. 20. tSupplement to Niles' Reg., vol. 38, 
p. 15. 



54 

could ever be profitable. The country south of 36° 30', and 
the State of Missouri north of that line, together with the cer- 
tainty of future indefinite extension into regions not then in our 
possession, were the rich spoils won by the Slave Power from 
this Waterloo defeat of the hosts of freedom ! 

This victory having been secured, that Power, after brief 
respite, began to seek a field for future triumphs. West of 
the Mississippi, and within the limits of the United States, — 
.Louisiana and Missouri had been obtained, and Arkansas was 
preparing for unquestioned admission as a slave State:"* north 
of 36° 30', the vast Missouri Territory was closed against it, 
not only by the compromise act, but by the nature of the soil, 
climate, and productions, which forbade the profitable employ- 
ment of slaves : south of the compromise line, and west of 
Arkansas, the country was uninviting, already occupied by In- 
dians, and about to be appropriated forever to the scattered 
remnants of these aboriginal tribes. But in the far south-west, 
across the Sabine, there lay an immense region, thinly inhabit- 
ed, whose mild climate, exuberant fertility, and rich ^tropical 
productions, invited possession. The Slave Power ^narked it 
for /lis own. 

True, that beautiful land did not belong to our country. — 
Whatever might have been our claims, we had, many years 
since, yielded them to Spain ; and it was now the undisputed 
property of our sister Ivepublic, Mexico. That fair region, 
moreover, was forbidden ground to the slave-holder. As early 
as 1823, the Mexican colonization law, passed during the ad- 
ministration of the Emperor Iturbide, had declared, ( Article 
30th ) that " After the publication of this law. there can be no 
sale or purchase of slaves which maybe introduced into the 
empire. The children of slaves born in the empire, shall be 
free at fourteen years of age."t In 1824, Mexico, at the mo- 
ment of throwing off the Spanish yoke, gave a noble testimo- 
ny of her loyalty to free principles, by decreeing, " that no per- 

*Arkansas was admitted in 1836. tMrs. Holley's Texas, 
p. 200. 



55 

-son thereafter should be born a slave, or introduced as 5uch in- 
to the Mexican States ; that all slaves then held should receive 
stipulated wages, and be subject to no punishment but on trial 
and judgment by the magistrate."* The colonizaiion law of 
Coahuilaand Texas, adopted in 1825, provided, (Art. 46,) that 
•*The new States, as regards the introduction of slaves, shall 
subject themselves to the existing laws, and to those which 
may hereafter be established on the subject.''t The Constitu- 
tion of Coahuila and Texas, published in 1S27, contained the 
following article; " 13. In this State no person shall be born a 
slave after this Constitution is published, and six months there- 
after ; neither will the introduction of slaves be permitted un- 
der any pretext.''^ On the 15th. September, 1829, the anni- 
versary of Mexican independence, President Guerrero, in con- 
formity with a provision of the Federal Constitution to that 
effect, issued a decree totally and immediately abolishing slave- 
ry throughout the Republic. § J^uch, so far as concerned this 
iniquitous system, were the laws of Mexico, and of Texas, her 
province. We shall see how far her rights of properly, her 
■Constitution, and her laws, were regarded b\^ Anglo-American 
-slave-holders. 

The policy of Mexico toward emigrants, except so far as 
respected religious liberty, was always liberal. And even this 
exception was rather nominal than real ; for, says a responsi- 
ble vvriter who had himself resided in Texas, "a disposition 
generally prevailed among the Mexican people to tolerate the 
public exercise of all other professions of the christian religion; 
and bt)th Methodists ana Presbyterians held their meetings, 
openly, in the colonies, without the least degree of molestation 
from the Government or individuals. "|| At a later period, in- 
deed, by the lOih article of the law of Coahuila and Texas, 
passed on the 26th. March, 183 \ ,\i wasdeclared that "no person 
shall be molested on account of his religious or political opin- 



*Channinff's Works, vol. 2. p. 198. fMrs. Holley's Texas, p. 216. 
iLundy's War in Texas, p. 5. ^Do. p. 5. ||War in Texas, p. 12, 
and compare D. B. Edward's Hist, of Texas, pp. 293, 294, &c. Mrs. 
Holley's Texas, oh. 9, Religion. 



56 

ions, provided he does not disturb the public order,* Immense 
tracts of land were granted to any Empressario, or Contractor, 
who engaged to introduce, within a certain specified time, a 
definite number of families. Each of these families, on pro- 
ducing evidence that they jnofesstd the Catholic religion, 
were of good moral character, and intended to cultivate their 
land, received a title to several hundred acres. They were al- 
so exempt from taxation for ten years, Encouraged by these 
liberal offers, a considerable body of settlers was soon intro- 
duced. In 1821, Moses Austin, of Missouri, obtained permis- 
sion from the Spanish Mexican authorities to introduce three 
hundred families, on terms satisfactory to both parties. After 
his death, his son, Stephen F. Austin executed his engagement? 
and commenced the first permanent colony in Texas. He was 
speedily followed by oth^r Contractors ; many of whom sold 
their contingent titles to joint-stock companies of land specu- 
lators in Nashville , New York, and other American cities ; 
and these latter disposed of their doubtful property, in small 
parcels, to all who were willing to purchase. It is foreign to 
my purpose to dwell upon the enormous frauds arising out of 
these transactions, which awakened the indignation of the Mex- 
ican Government, and led to the exclusion, for a season, of all 
immigration from our country. They deserve, however, the 
careful attention, of all who would learn the true history of the 
Texan revolution, and discover the secret cause of that zeal 
displayed by many American politicians and newspaper editors, 
in behalf of Te^an liberties, as well as of the recognition and 
annexation of Texas by the United States.! 

*Mrs. Holley's Texas, p. 181. 

fMr. Mies, in his Register of Nov. 28, 1829, said, "In relation to 
the lands in this desired-to-be territory of the United States, we have 
intimated that certain individuals had a mighty interest. A citizRn of 
Baltimore claims /bWy eight million acres. Col. Austin, we know not 
how many millions more. Others, we are assured, have speculated 
deeply ; and if we remember rightly, some handful of millions will 
be claimed by certain bankers i)i Europe. Millions may probably be 
subscribed to prosecute this project to its consummatmn, and hire 
hundreds of scribes to puff it off in the papers." About the same 
time, Charles Hammond, of the Cincinnati Gazette, said, "Many ad- 
venrutous spirits of the west, and south-west, have secured a large 
interest, in the lands of the territory proposed to be acquired. At this 



57 

Another fact, more pertinent to my subject, deserves espe- 
cial consideration. Many emigrants from the United States, 
favored by their remoteness from the seat of government, and 
the unsettled state of the country, secretly introduced into Texas 
large numbers of slaves ; and they even purchased, on the 
coasts, the human cargoes of African traders. As early as 
1826, within five years after the first settlement of the country, 
the following paragraph was circulated in our southern news- 
papers ; "Letters have been received, stating that the States of 
Coahuila and Texas have abolished slavery in toto ; and that all 
slaves in the province at the promulgation of the decree, shall be 
free. This has produced the greatest dissatisfaction, and 
should the report be true, it is rumored that the slaveholders 
will make considerable opposition to any measure of the kind. 
The Americans in this province have become dissatisfied with 
the government," &c.* 

The following extract from a letter written by the Agent of 
a Texas land company for the purpose of inviting emigration 
from our country, affords a specimen of the respect shown by 
some of the settlers for the constitution and laws of their adopt- 
ed country, which they had sworn to support. The letter was 
published in the New Orleans iVIercantile Advertiser, in 1828. 
" Although more than seven years have elapsed since the Aus- 
tins began their colony near Rio Grande, it now numbers from 
twelve to fifteen thousand souls, mostly emigrants from the 
United States. The law of Mexico prohibiting slavery is 
evaded by having negroes bound to serve an apprenticeship 
of ninety-nine years ! There are several planters "U ho num- 
ber fifty or sixty such apprentices." t 

moment, efforts are making to effect sales in one vast grant of these 
lands. I know others who have obtained extensive grants condition- 
ally. I have understood that a company in Tennessee is deeply en- 
gaged in speculations of this nature" (Quoted in National Intelli- 
gencer of Oct 7, 1829. See also, Dr. Channing's Works, vol. !^. pp. 
195— -197. Mrs. Holley's Texas, p. 229. D. B. Edward's Hist, of 
Texas, pp. 283, 285—293. War in Texas, p. 4. &c. ' 

*Niles'" Register. Nov. 4, 1826. fNiles' Register, July 19, 1828. 
---To prevent this evasion, as contemptible as it was wicked, the 
Legislature of Coahuila & Texas, on the 28th, April, I832, adopted 



58 

To such an extent was this violation of Mexican law carried 
by the colonists, \hat, in 1830, the government, as before inti_ 
mated, passed a law prohibiting the entrance of all foreigners 
on the northern frontier, '^ unless they be furnished with pass- 
ports, signed by the Agents of the Republic at the place whence 
they proceed :" "There shall be no variation \yith regard to 
the colonies already established, nor with regard to the slaves 
that may be in them ; but the General Government, or the par- 
ticular State Government, shall take care, under the strictest re- 
sponsibility, thatthe colonization laws be obeyed, & that no more 
slaves be introduced," * Still in spite of laws and precautions, 
this shameful conduct was continued, Niles' Register, Feb. 
25th, 1832, contains the following paragraph : ''The intro- 
duction of slaves by emigrants from the United States, in de- 
fiance of the laws of Mexico, seems to have excited the attention 
of that government ; but the colonists, for the sake of their 
negroes, talk of resisting !" A Little Rock (Arkansas) paper, 
in 1825, said, "The emigration to Arkansas is very great, 
with large droves of negroes, exclusive of those who are about 
to join the people of Texas." t 

In this manner, then, was Texas colonized from 1821 to 1834. 
Notwithstanding the liberality of Mexico toward honest and 
legal settlers, millions of acres were sold by swindling specu- 
lators in our great cities, and a population thrust themselves 
upon her, in violation of all law and constitution, bringing with 
them hundreds of American slaves ! 

Let us turn, now, to inquire what was doing by southern 
politicians in our own country, with reference to this very 
colonization, and its ultimate results. Col. Thomas H. Benton 



a law with the following provi-^ions, " Art. 35. The new settlers, 
in rejiard to the intro'luoiion of ^J|ave^=, shall be subject to laws which 
now exist, and which shall hereafter be made on the subject. Art. 
36. The servants and laborers, whom, in future, foreij^n colonists siial! 
introduce, shall not, by force of any contract whatever, remain bound 
to their service a longer space of time than ten years." (War in 
Texas, p. 24 ) 

*War in Texas, p. 2S. tNiles Reg. vol. 49, p. 281, 



59 

is said to have first suggested the " re-annexation " of Texas, 
very shortly after the ratification of our treaty with Spain in 
1820.* A series of articles on that subject, signed Jlmerica' 
«W5, originally published in St. Louis ata somewhat later period, 
were universally attributed to his pen. In these able essays, 
the writer insisted that Texas had been improperly surrendered 
to Spain by Mr. Adams, through his hostility to southern insti- 
tutions : that it ought to be recovered by the United States; that 
by this measure five or six slave-holding States would be added 
to this Union ; and he even intimated that nine States, as 
large as Kentucky, might be formed within the limits of that 
province. These essays were subsequently re; ublished by all 
the southern papers, and with general commendation. The 
Edgefield Carolinian, said to be under the control of Mr. 
McDuffie, remarked : "Some imposing essays, &c. explaining 
the circumstances of the treaty of 1819, and disj)laying the 
advantages of the retrocession, have operated upon the public 
mind in the West with electrical force and rapidity. 'I his 
large fragment of the Mississippi valley, affording sufficient 
territory for four or five slaveholding States, was unceremo- 
niously sacrificed, with scarcely a pretext of a demand for it on 
the part of Spain. Jimericanus exposes the evils to the 
United States of this surrender under twelve distinct heads. 
Two of them, of particular interest to this section of the coun- 
try are, that it brings a non-slaveholding empire in juxtaposition 
with the slaveholding southwest, and diminishes the outlet for 
Indians," &c. t The Nashville Banner said : The annexation 
of Texas "will roundoff ouv territory, and give us as appro- 
priate, safe, and natural south-western boundary." The Na- 
tional Gazette, and the New York Courier and Enquirer, ap- 
proved the suggestion ; the latter speaking of Texas as " a 
refuge for absconding slaves" ! The Southern Patrio|^ of 
Charleston, S. C. said : " The reasons offered in favor of the 
acquisition are highly satisfactory. Those who have always 
opposed the formation of States in the West, and the extension 



*See National Intelligencer, Sept. 18, 1829, tWar in Texas 



60 

of slavery in that quarter, will no doubt resist the policy of 
purchasing more land,*' &c, * 

The Virginia Free Press, in a spirit worthy of the Old 
Dominion in '76, said; "In relation to the purchase of this 
immense tract of country, an objection is urged that it may be 
the means of extending and perpetuating the evils of slavery. 
The objection, we think, is entitled to some weight. Should a 
mart so extensive be opened, where the labor of slaves can be 
successfully employed, human cupidity will soon engulf, in its 
interminable abyss, all the schemes of benevolent philanthropy 
which have been so fondly fostered for the last ten years." t 

An elaborate communication appeared in the Nashville Re- 
publican, of Aug. IS, 1829, in which, after presenting a graphic 
description of Texas, as a second Eden, and the probability 
that Mexico, then, " poor and embarrassed '^, would be glad to 
sell it, the writer proceeded to offer the following, among other 
reasons, for its purchase : — '' 1, It is necessary to the security 
of Louisiana, Arkansas, 4'c. While Texas remains in the 
hands of its present possessors, a foreign power could take 
possession, encourage the insurrection and elopement of slaves, 
4'C. All Texas was once ours. The Rio Grande was then our 
western boundary. To any one acquainted with this country 
it seems as if this river was designed by the hand of Heaven 
as a boundary between two great nations of dissimilar pursuits." 
(t^ slave-holding, and a slave-hating Republic, Jor instance!) 
"On both sides of the river, the land for a hundred miles dis- 
tance, is as sterile as the deserts of Arabia, 2. It is necessary 
to have that country in order to prevent it from being a place 
of refuge for debtors, malefactors, and fugitive slaves, from 
the United States- As things now stand, a deserter from our ar- 
my, a debtor, a perpetrator of the blackest crimes, or a slave, by 
crossing a small stream, or a mere line, can entirely defeat the 



*See these and similar quotations in National Intelligencer, 
Sept. 26, 1829. 

tNational Intelligencer, Oct. 7, 1829. 



61 

claims of justice." ( Mexico would deliver up ftigitivBs from 
justice, but not from injustice) "4. It is important to have 
Texas as an outlet to the negroes of the lower country. Hu- 
manity shudders at even the conception of what must one day 
be the consequence of the great and increasing disproportion 
of the white to the slave population of Louisiana. The 
expectation of immense profits from the cultivation of sugar, 
causes the importation of a great number of slaves into that 
State annually. By the ordinary process of increase, they 
must shortly become too numerous for profit or safety. What 
is then to be done with them?"t 

The writer next anticipates objections from the North and 
East ; and thus answers the natural reference to the extension 
and fate of other empires; " We, too, should be opposed to an 
extension of our territory beyond seas, or impassable moun- 
tains, so as to prevent an easy and speedy communication with 
all its parts. On this account, we have been opposed to the oc- 
cupation of the country on the Columbia river, separated, as it 
is, from the United States, by those precipitous, cloud-piercing, 
and snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Cut oiF, as its inhabitants 
would be, from all intercourse with us, and pursuing trades and 
occupations essentially diiferent, they would soon forget us; 
encompassed by English, Russians, and Indians, they would 
become a prey before assistance could be afforded them ; or 
their protection would involve us in continual collisions. From 
the difficulties, then, of intercourse, we have been in favor of 
giving up the Oregon Territory, ^^ " for as much as it is worth, 
in exchange for Texas, where no such obstacles exist." [and 
ivhere nine slave States as targe as Kentucky, could be 
formed, ) This article, by a sad misnomer, was signed ^' Pat- 
riot,^^ 



fin the VirginiaConveiitionof 18^^9, Jadge Upsher obacrved,'* thai 
if Texas should be obtained, which he desired, it would raise the 
price of slaves, and be a great advantage to the slaveholders of that 
State. In the Virginia Assembly ot 1832, Mr, Gholeon stated, ** that 
the price of slaves fell twenty five per cent, within two hours after 
the news was received of the non-importation act passed by the 
Louisiana Legislature. Yet he believed the acquisition of Texas 
would raise their price fifty per cent at least/' J^ationai Intelligent 
*er fciept 2, 1829. * 



62 

The Richmond Inquirer, of Sept. 1829, said: "We hazard 
very little in asserting, that, when the facts come out, this ad- 
ministration will be found equally vigilant in watching over the 
south-western border of our country. — The statesmen who are 
at the head of our affairs, are not the men we take them to be, 
if they have not already pursued the proper steps for obtaining 
the cession of Texas, even before the able numbers of %dmeri- 
canus saw the light. But nous vtrronsV We shall see, 
presently, that the sagacious editor, ( who had no doubt been 
informed of the facts,) was correct. — A Charleston paper also 
observed: " It is not impossible that he ( the President ) is now 
examining the propriety and practicability of a retrocession of 
the vast territory of Texas, an enterprise loudly demanded by 
the welfare of the West, and which could not fail to exercise 
an important and favorable influence upon the future destinies 
of the South, hy increasing the votes of the slave-holding 
States in the United States Senate.^^ 

We have now glanced at the manner in which Texas was col- 
onized.* we have seen the clearly avowed object for which 
southern politicians sought its annexation to the United States 
by purchase: the last quotations direct our attention to the pro- 
ceedings of our National Government, in connection with this 
subject. — From the purchase of Louisiana in 1802, until the 
treaty with Spain in 1819, we steadily and strenuously insisted 
upon our right to Texas, with the Rio Grande for our western 
boundary, as composing a part of the territory obtained from 
France,* By that treaty, however, we forever yielded our 
claims, in favor of the Spanish Government: and, upon the 
establishment of her independence, wrested from Spjtin, the 
Mexican Republic, of course, became possessed of the Span- 
ish title, to Texas. Unfortunately, both for us and Mexico, 
when we parted with our claims, we did not extinguish our de- 
sire to possess that valuable province. The Florida treaty 
was ratified by the United States in 1821 ; and in 1825, under 
the Presidency of John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State, 
Mr. Clay, instructed Mr. Poinsett, our Minister in Mexico, to 

*See Ainer. Slate Papers, Foreign Relations, Cprrespond. of Pinck- 
ney; Monroe and*Cevallos, &;c. 



63 

Sound that Government upon the subject of a more westerly- 
boundary than the Sabine. The overture proving unsuccessful, 
a more vigorous effort was made in 1827, whf^n Mr. Clay au- 
thorized Mr. Poinsett to purchase the whole country to the 
Rio Grande, for a sum not exceeding one million of dollars: 
but the Mexican authorities refused to sell it. In 1S29;, under 
the Presidency of Gen. Jackson, Mr. Van Buren, the Secreta- 
ry of State, directed Mr. Poinsett again to open negotiations, 
with that Government, authorizing him to ofter them four or 
even nve millions of dollars.* and as Mexico was then engaged 
in repelling a threatened Spanish invasion, and was "poor and 
embarrassed," it was confidently hoped that our proposal 
would be accepted. On the contrary, however, it proved ex- 
ceedingly disagreeable to Mexico ; and she requested Presi- 
dent Jackson to recall Mr. Poinsett : which he did immediate- 
ly. Finally in 1835, Mr. Butler, our Charge' d' Affairs in 
Mexico, was instructed to negotiate once more for the whole 
country, as far west as the Rio Grande, together with a strip of 
California, South of Oregon Territory, five degrees broad, and 
extending from our Western borders to the Pacific Ocean ! — 
For this, ii he could obtain it, he was authorized to give some- 
Ihing handsome, additional to the five millions formerly propo- 
sed. Is it strange that the Mexican Government was yet 
more deeply offended with this last proposal, made at the very 
time when American citizens were actually endeavoring to 
tear Texas from her, by force of arms } — It is evident, from 
this brief statement of facts, that our Government never ceas- 
ed to seek the possession of Texas: and it is equally clear, that, 
by our repeated attempts to purchase of Mexico, we aidinovvl- 
edged her right of ownership. It is not for me to judge the 
motives which prompted these attempts, by each successive 
administration: the Ruler and Judge <jf nations only knows 
how far such perpetual teasings with price upon price, may have 
indicated, on the part of our people and rulers, a sinful covet- 
ing of that which was our neighbors. 

On the failure of our negotiations for purchase in 1829, the 
leading spirits in the Texas movement seem to have resolved 
on another mode of accomplishing their object. What that 



64 

mode VTas, is plainly intimated in the following extract from- 
the Arkansas Gazette, published in 1830: " As the subject of 
the purchase of Texas has engrossed much of the attention of 
our politicians for a year or two past, it may not, perhaps, be 
improper to state that we are in possession of information, de- 
rived from a source entitled to the highest credit, which des- 
troys all hope of the speedy acquisition of that country by the 
United States. Col. Butler, the Charge" d' Affairs of the Uni- 
ted States in Mexico, was especially authorized by the Presi- 
dent to treat with that Government for the purchase of Texas. 
The present predominant party are decidedly opposed to ced- 
ing any portion of its territory. No hopes need therefore be 
entertained of our acquiring Texas, until some other party, 
more friendly to the United States than the present, shall pre- 
dominate in Mexico ; and perhaps not until the people of 
Texas shall throw off the yoke of allegiance to that Gov- 
er?iment, which they will do, no doubt, so soon as they shall 
have a reasonable pretext for doing so.^' This was in 1830, 
let it be remembered: and yet the writer had the cool impu- 
dence to add, " At present, they are probably subject to as few 
exactions and impositions as any people under the sun'^P 

Unhappily for all parties, the internal affairs of Mexico have 
ever been miserably managed. An ambitious military, and an 
avaricious priesthood, too generally controlled them: revolution 
succeeded revolution; and it would have been strange indeed 
if, amid continual changes and commotions, our own citizens 
had not sometimes suffered injustice at the hands of Mexican 
authorities ; and if, in their efforts to chastise Texan insubor- 
dination, they had not afforded those ungenerous intruders what 
they might deem '• a reasonable pretext ^^ for erecting the stan- 
dard of revolt. 

It would be long, — and out of place here, — to tell the story 
of that revolt. Within the space of five years previous to 
1829, as Mr. Van Buren stated in his letter to Poinsett, there 
occurred, «• among the inhabitants of Texas ( not Spaniards ), 
not less than four revolts against the Government, one of them 
having for its avowed object the independence of the country.'* 

*War in Texas, p. 15. 



65 

In 1831, when Gen. Bustamente had overthrown President 
Guerrero, and seized upon the government, a portion of the 
Texans, supposing the favorable time had arrived to strike for 
independence, made an attack upon the Mexican officer at An- 
nahuac ; and in May, 1832, it was proposed in a public meet- 
ing to attack the fort at Velasco ; when, having learned that 
Bustamente had been overthrown by Santa Anna, they declared 
themselves on the side of the victor, and continued hostile op- 
erations, under that pretence. And when, at length, Santa An- 
na, having prostrated Bustamente, and having been elected 
President of Mexico, sent a large body of troops to quell the 
rebellion of the Texans, the latter escaped by insisting that they 
had taken arms against Bustamente, and in support of Santa 
Anna and the Constitution of 18241* 

Hitherto Texas and Coahuila had composed one State of the 
Mexican confederacy. The emigrant inhabitants of the former, 
who had long desired separation from Coahuila, held a 
convention at San Felipe, in iS33, for the purpose of forming 
a State constitution for Texas, and of petitioning the 
Mexican Congress in favor of a separate organization. In this 
constitution, however, they were careful to say nothing against 
slavery ; but, on the contrary, by Article 22nd. of the General 
Provisions, a foundation was laid forfurture legislation in favor 
of that system.! On this account, as well as for other 
other reasons, Col. Austin, who was sent to lay the petition 
before the government, received but little encouragement ; and 
having written a letter to the colonists, while at the city of 
Mexico, advising them to organize a separate Slate Government 
without the permission of the Federal authorities, which letter 
was inteicepted, he was seized at Saltillo, on his return home, 
sent back to the capital, and imprisoned. This, of course, in- 
creased the hostility of the Texans toward their adopted 
<;ountry. 

In 1834, the Mexican Congress, under the Presidency of 
Santa Anna, in accordance, it is said, with legal forms, abolished 
the federal constitution of 1824, and established in its place a con- 

*Texas and the Texans, by H. S. Foote, pp. 12 — 25. t See 
Ihe State Constitu. in Edward's His-tory of Texas, p. 196, &c. 



66 

solidated system. How far ihey were justified in so doing, it 
is not easy to decide. Certain it is, by the confession of all 
parties, that the old constitntion had fallen into contempt, and 
that a stron2;er central government appeared necessary for the 
public welfare, under the existing condition of the Mexican 
people. This radical change in the national constitution, at 
once banished all hope of a separate State organization for the 
Texans, and afforded that ''^ reasonable j^re text ^^ iov revolt 
which they had so long sought. Accordingly, they announced 
their opposition to the change of government ; organized a 
military force ; and, on the 3d November, 1835, published an 
official declaration of war against the President Santa Anna, 
in defence of the Federal Constitution of ]S24. On the 2nd, 
March, 1836, the Texan Provisional Government published a 
declaration of Independence of the Parent Government, To 
this " final step of separating forever from Mexico," the people 
of Texas, as their chosen historian and pompous eulogist him- 
self admits, were "powerfully influenced by admonition re- 
ceived from the United States.'^* In their " Declaration "are 
set forth, at length, the causes which impelled a separation: 
these are, the fact that Mexican legislation was conducted in 
the use of the Spanish language ! — that efforts for separate 
State organization had been unsuccessful ; — that Col. Austin had 
been imprisoned for advising an act of open opposition to Con- 
gress ! — that they had not enjoyed the right of trial by jury ; 
(a thing unknown to Spaniards as well as Mexicans, and which 
no constitution of theirs had ever provided for ; and, by the 
way, a fair trial before an honest jury was the last thing which 
some of these Texans would have desired ;) — that religious 
freedom had been denied them, a national religion established; 
that their attempt to restore the constitution of 1824 had been 
unsustained by the Mexican people, &c. <5'C, In reference to 
these complaints, one rem.ark may suffice. The constitution 
of 1835, against which they had fought, said, '• Art. 1. The 
Mexican nation, one. sovereign, and independent, has not. and 
does not profess, or protect any other religion than the Catholic, 
and Roman religion,' nor will the exercise of any other be 

*Texas and the Texans, vol. 2. p. 142. 
LefC. 



67 

tolerated." The constitution of 1-^24 lor which they had^ 
pretended to fight, said, "Title 1st. art. 3. The religion of the 
Mexican nation, is, and will he perpetually, the Roman Catho- 
lic Apostolic. The nation will protect it by wise and just law, 
and prohibit the exerise of any other whatever." 

That the emigrants to Texas had suffered under some real 
grievances, is altogether probable : that both the Mexican con- 
stitutions were, in some respects, anti-republican, is unques- 
tionable : that the administration of that Government was every 
way unfortunate, and sometimes oppressive, we may readily 
believe : and all legal proceedings for the amendment of the 
constitution, and the prevention of faults in its administration, 
must have been highly commendable. Even an armed resis- 
tance to tyranny, on the part of the colonists, might have de- 
served our sympathy, did not every fact in theii history de- 
monstrate that, from the beginning, a large portion of them had 
sought to establish negro slavery on soil already consecrated to 
freedom ; and that they had kept steadily in view the ultimate 
separation of Texas from Mexico, and its annexation to these 
United States. If any thing be wanted to complete the proof of 
thischarge already furnished, it may be found in the Constiiu- 
iion of the Republic of Texas, adopted fifteen days af'er the 
Declaration of Independence. In that document the 9th section 
under the head of' General Provisions^'' is as follows ; *' All 
persons of color who were slaves for life previous to their emi- 
gration to Texas, and who are now held in bondage, shall re- 
main in the like state of servitude, provided the said slave shall 
be the bona fide property of the person so holding said slave • 
as aforesaid. Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit emigrants 
from the United States of America from bringing their slaves 
into the Republic with them, and holding them by the same 
tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States; 
nor shall Congress have power to emancipate slaves ; nor shall 
any slave-holder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave or 
slaves, without the consent of Congress, unless he or she shall 
send his or her slave or slaves without the limits of the Repub- 
jic. No free person ot African descent, either in whole or in 
part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the Republic, 



68 

without the consent of Congress ; and the importation or aci^ 
mission of Africans or negroes into this Republic, excepting 
from the United States of America, is forever prohibited, and 
declared to be piracy." 

The remainder of this sad recital may be briefly told. Im- 
mediately upon the Texan declaration of independence, arms, 
troops, and money were poured into that country from the 
southern and western States. Regiments of volunteers were 
organized, officered, and drilled, in the United States, who 
marched in open day, and without molestation or question, to 
the scene of action ; our Government, meanwhile, professing 
to be at peace with that of Mexico ! The cannon used in the 
decisive battle of San Jacinto, were a present from Cincinnati, 
Said Mr. Buchanan, in the United States Senate, while discuss- 
ing Mr, Walker's resolutions for recognizing Texan indepen- 
dence, "Every one knows that the success of Texas, thus 
far, has been achieved mainly by men and resources drawn, in 
fact, from the people of the United^States, tho without any re- 
cognition of its government."* The actual war terminated 
with the defeat and capture of Gen. Santa Anna, at San Jacinto, 
April 21st 1836; and on March 1st, 1837, just at the close of 
the session, the Senate of the United States, by a vote of 23 to 
19, taken while some Senators were absent at dinner, recog- 
nized the independence of Texas, On their return, a reconsid- 
eration was moved, and lost by a tie vote.t 

Immediately after the formal recognition of Texas, the Leg- 
islature of that Republic, instructed by the people, directed 
their President ( Houston ) to make application to the Govern- 
ment of the United States for admission to this Union. Ap- 
plication was accordingly made, by a Minister Plenipotentiary, 
Gen, Hunt, in August, 1837. It was not until 1845, however, 
that the grand scheme, so long in process of execution, received 
its completion in the annexation of Texas, as one immense 
State, with a Constitution sanctioning perpetual slavery! 

To a reflecting mind, perusing the history of these transact 



^^Niles' Reg., March 4, 1837. tNiles' Reg., March 4, 1837. 



69 

tions, the questions cannot but occur,— Where were the ene^ 
mies of slavery during all this period ? What were the Free 
States doing from 1830 to 1845, and especially in the seven 
years' interval between the first offer and the final acceptance 
of Texas ? Alas! how sad is the truthful answer to the lover 
of liberty ; to him who remembers the principles and the men 
of 1776! In righteous indignation of our former sins, God 
seemed to have inflicted alike upon free and slave States, a fear- 
ful judicial blindness. The only body of men in ihe United 
States, who for fifteen years prior to 1845, were in any good 
degree faithful to the free principles of our revolutionary peri- 
od, who were laboring to retrieve the errors of the past, and 
prevent their consummation in theannexation of Texas, — brand- 
ed with the name of " abolitionists, " were every where held 
up to public contempt and execration. Not only in New Or- 
leans, and Mobile, and Charleston, and Nashville, and Rich- 
mond ; but in Alton, and Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, and N. 
York, and Boston : — in the free, no less than in the slave 
States ; — their principles were denounced, their reputations 
slandered, their acts misrepresented, their intentions belied^ 
their presses torn to pieces, their voices silenced in the public 
assemblies, their names erased by common consent from the list 
of party association, their houses assaulted and in ruins, their 
lives threatened, and in some instances offered as a bloody sac- 
rifice on their own hearth-stones, to appease the popular fury! 
During the Congressional session of 1837-8, when Texas, all 
foul with blood shed in the extension of slavery, first presented 
herself for admission to our once glorious confederacy ; her 
bloody hand was politely grasped, while the doors of an Amer- 
ican Congress were rudely slamm.ed in the face of three hun- 
dred thousand American citizens, vainly petitioning for the 
support of American principles! Posterity must look back 
with astonishment upon the mournful scenes of that gloomy 
period, and ask, incredulously, Could these events have occur- 
red in the land of Washington, and Jay, and Morris, and Ger- 
ry, and Samuel Adams ? Strange infatuation ! Sad evidence 
that a just God was visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon 
the children ; evidence none the less weighty in establishing 



70 

such a conclusion, even tho we should admit, (as of course we 
do not,) that these abo'itionists, as a body, were a set of wild fan- 
atics; for the recan be no clearer token of the Divine displeas- 
ure against a nation, than the fact that its sacred Ark is permit- 
ted to fall into the hand of Philistines. 

Texas, as we have seen, was annexed to the United States in 
1845. The first fault of that annexation was our present 
unhappy war with Mexico. The necessity of such a result, 
which had been long predicted, was obvious on a consideration 
of two important facts. First, Mexico however impotent to 
effect the re-subjugation of Texas, had steadily protested against 
her independence. After the capture of President Santa Anna, 
at the battle of San Jacinto, a treaty of peace, and of bounda- 
ries was, indeed, agreed to between that high o^fficer and the 
President of Texas ; * but that treaty together with Santa 
Anna's subsequent attempts at negotiation with the Cabinet of 
Washington, were promptly disavowed by the Mexican Gov-- 
ernment. and of course, could have no binding obligation, — - 
When, therefore, under such circumstances. Texas was received 
as a member of this confederacy, our Government could have 
entertained no hope of avoiding a war with Mexico, other than 
that which arose from her acknowledged weakness, and our 
own vast superiority. 

Secondly, the Texas annexed to us as a sister State was by 
no means co-incident in boundaries with the Texas so familiar 
to Mexico as one of her ancient provinces. As constituting, 
in connection with Coahuila, one of the Mexican States under 
the Constitution of 1824, Texas embraced an area of about 
160.000 square miles, t Its boundaries were, the Sabine on the 
east. Red River on the north, and the Nueces on the West. By 
an act of the Texan Congress, however, approved Dec. 19, 1836, 



"" Texas and the Texans, vol. 2. pp. 318—320. t See Mur- 
ray's Encyclopedia of geogr. vol, 3. p. 329. — Tanner's Map of 
Mexico in 1834. — War in Texas, p 25. — Edwards says, 150,- 
000 sq. miles: Hist, of Texas, p.* 13.— « Nearly 200,000 sq. 
miles," Mrs. Holley's Texas p. 14. 



71 

§ier limits were extended to the west as far as the Rio Grande, 
from Its mouth to its source, and thence northward to the 42° 
of north latitude ; thus including a part of the Mexican States, 
Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and New Mexico ; and com- 
prehending an area of 324 018 square miles, or more than 
double her former territory. * With such an extravagant claim 
of territory, she offered herself to us, and was finally accepted : 
and it was in defence of these assumed boundaries that Gen. 
Taylor was ordered to lead the United States' forces from Cor- 
pus Christi, on the Nueces, to the bank of the Rio Grande. 
Our Government did indeed, propose to that of Mexico to 
settle by treaty the western boundary of Texas ; and sent a 
Mmister for that purpose, whom Mexico, whether for sufficient 
or insufficient reasons, refused to receive. The fact is, however, 
that before the question was, or could be thus amicably settled, 
our army , which had laid unmolested for months on the banks of 
the Nueces, marched into the disputed territory ; the Mexican 
forces, as might naturally have been anticipated, resisted the 
encroachment ; the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca d' la Palma 
ensued ; American blood, as we were told, was shed by an en- 
emy "o?^ American soil ;" the martial spirit of the Nation was 
aroused, and Congress declared that war existed ^' by the act 
of Mexico^^ ! Such is a plain recital of facts connected with 
the origin of our present war. If Congress had declared that 
war existed through the insatiable appetite of the American 
people for more territory ; the determination of the Slave Pow- 
er to enlarge its borders, and open new and vast markets for 
slaves ; and the absurd pretensions of the State of Texas; they 
would have uttered but the simple truth. I sd^y, absurd pre- 
tensions : for it is a matter of universal notoriety that the Tex- 
an Government never had possession of a large part of the ter- 
ritory she claimed ; butthat ithad always been,and^until seized 
by our armies, continued to be, in full possession of Mexico. 
Without pretending to any considerable knowledge of the 
laws of nations, applicable to such cases, it is obvious to com- 
mon sense, that when one nation may, by a simple act of legis- 

*See a Map of Texas compiled for the State Department 
under the direction of Col. Abert, 1844. 



72 

lation, appropriate to herself vast tracts of country belonging 
to another people, there is an end to all law but that which is 
promulgated at the cannon's mouth. 

The result of the battles just mentioned, was, 'to give our ar- 
my undisputed possession of the country east of the Kio 
Grande. But, when once we tasted blood, that was not satis- 
factory : we " conquer a peace " from Mexico ; and then, un- 
der pretence of making her pay the expenses of the war, se- 
cure to ourselves another vast portion of her dominions, stretch- 
ing across to the Pacific Ocean, * In the pursuit of this un- 
hallowed object, the war has been prosecuted for more 
than a year ; vast sums of money have been expended ; thoU' 
sands of lives have been sacrificed ; many Mexican cities have 
been captured ; and an American army now at the very gates 
of their capital. Still, " peace '' is not "conquered ^'; and God 
knows what shall be the end of these things ! "The race is 
not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," (Eccl. 9 ; U, 

One thing is certain ; as the discussions, in our last Congress 
upon the Wilmot Proviso demonstrated : the Slave Power has 
fixed its covetous eyes upon the provmces about to be wrested 
from our neighbor. ; — If those provinces be obtained, a second 
Missouri controversy is destined to agitate these United States ; 
and there is abundant reason to apprehend, that, if the Divine 
mercy prevent not, with the termination of that controversy, 
our glorious Union, our hopes, our prosperity, our civil and 
religious liberties, will forever terminate ! 

*As early as Dec. 1843, more than two years before the war com- 
menced, Col. Fremont, at the head of an armed exploring party, 
sent out by our Government, liad entered Upper California, where he 
pursued his discoveries for several months I 



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